Rana Hamadeh is a Palestinian-Canadian activist, artist, facilitator, and writer based on Algonquin Anishnaabeg land in Ottawa. She immerses herself in grassroots community organizing, both in Ottawa and her second home, occupied Palestine.
Alongside coordinating Next Up Ottawa, Rana currently runs peer support programs for refugee youth and women through an Ottawa non-profit.
While completing her BA in human rights and law at Carleton University, Rana became interested in organizing for students issues, from food poverty to accessible tuition. On campus, she became a core member of Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) and joined their battle for a socially ethical investment policy at Carleton. She also continues to sit as a Board member of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG), a centre for student organizing on the lines of social, environmental, and economic justice. In Palestine, she worked as an independent journalist and within local direct-action activism collectives.
Rana’s passions are informed by her experiences: arriving in Canada as both a refugee and a settler; growing up in the Palestinian diaspora and resisting exile as an adult; and living in Canada as a racialized Muslim woman. She is interested in creating spaces where action is informed by decolonization.