On May 13, Freedom Advocacy Network welcomed back Samantha Youseff. Thank you to my dear friend Glenn B for connecting us. Last time we hosted Samantha, we had such a riveting conversation that no one wanted the discussion to end. This time, the same thing happened – everyone was hanging on every word Samantha said.
On April 15, 2026, we hosted Sam Bahour, live from West Bank. Long time Freedom Advocacy Network member and supporter, Karina Q, who also has also presented on two different topics, has kindly brought us three guest speakers after her visit to the West Bank a few months ago.
Agenda: Palestine’s political economy and the global complicity serving and maintaining Apartheid and Genocide.
Sam Bahour
Sam Bahour (سام بحور) resides in Al-Bireh/Ramallah, Palestine. He does business consulting as Applied Information Management (AIM), specializing in business development with a niche focus on the information technology sector and start-ups.
Bahour was instrumental in the establishment of two publicly traded firms: the Palestine Telecommunications Company (PALTEL) and the Arab Palestinian Shopping Centers (APSC). He is Co-founder & Emeritus Member of Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy (A4VPE) and until recently served as an independent Director at the Arab Islamic Bank P.L.C. and a board member at Just Vision.
He writes frequently on Palestinian affairs and has been widely published in leading outlets. He is co-editor of HOMELAND: Oral History of Palestine and Palestinians (Olive Branch Press, 1993), tweets at @SamBahour, and blogs at epalestine.ps.
On April 1, 2026, we hosted Issa Amro, live from West Bank. Long time Freedom Advocacy Network member and supporter, Karina Q, who also has also presented on two different topics, has kindly brought us our next three guest speakers after her visit to the West Bank a few months ago.
Agenda: Annexation of the West Bank, Hebron city as a case study.
On March 18, we hosted the awesome and courageous Jewish ally Sam Stein. Over the last 7+ years, He has been spending his time on and off in different West Bank villages, literally putting his body on the line to protect Palestinians from settlers and IDF terrorists.
On March 4, 2026, my awesome friend Ala Zaitoun, a human rights advocate and career humanitarian, with experience from UN, IOM and other organizations, led a collaborative discussion on Ethics in Business.
Agenda: Ala Zaitoun will be leading a group discussion on ethics in the business landscape: defining ethical business and breaking it down to more tangible, concrete concepts, we will also examine together some parameters and motivations that foster ethical business environment and products, also discuss profitability and ethics, and finally we will touch on how to make ethics measurable and trackable.
Thank you,
Housekeeping:
From Amanda and Eberechi: “On September 30, 2025, Eberechi and I began emailing institutions across Canada to ask for their institutional stance on the holocaust and genocide Israel is committing in Palestine; we named this effort Documenting Silence.
While Documenting Silence developed organically and was shaped in September and October of 2025, this work began before September 30, 2025.
We reached out to a total of 70 Canadian institutions/institutions on ‘Canadian soil’ (allegedly), and these are some of the questions we asked most institutions”
On February 18, my new friend Iyas Sartawi shared heartbreaking about the reality and life in Gaza since the so-called “ceasefire”. He will be talking about how Project Hope Palestine is assisting the Palestinians in Gaza.
Agenda:
Talk about life in Palestine/Gaza after ceasefire
Go over Project Hope for Palestine – what it is and how it helps assisting the Palestinians of Gaza
A large portion of Iyas’s own down was confiscated Oct 20, 2025 – number of his family members were shot and some are still going through surgery and recovery
Iyas is from Sarta, hence the name Sartawi
Will focus on Gaza instead of West Bank
Occupation continues to carry out silent genocide
It is the Occupation’s policy to make life difficult for Palestinians
90% of Gaza has already been destroyed
601 Palestinians have been killed since the so called Ceasefire
1200+ ceasefire violations by IDF terrorists
Weekly floods destroyed people’s tents
Even when the tents are new, they are not suitable for human living
Life is very hard in the tents
There is no sense of privacy whatsoever
Over 20,000 children were martyred – many born and killed during the genocide itself
Team is assocaited with many journalists
Donation money is sent to help people in gaza
The Mutual Aid helps with food, medical expenses, schools and individual family expenses
Distribution of aid also considers children’s and other’s emotional needs as well, with entertainment for displaced people, through music, clowns, etc.
They sponsor musicians to entertain orphans and orphanages
Also partner with Civil Defense team to repair and build tents
Also supporting two churches in Gaza, got letters of appreciation from them
Project Hope Palestine is also supporting several schools as well
Got letters of appreciation from hospitals as well
January 28, I was honoured to be hosting the brave and awesome Ibtihal Aboussad – https://www.instagram.com/hal.ib.ti – You may recall her as one of the brave women standing up to Microsoft’s complicity in the genocide of the Palestinian people and publicly and loudly quitting her job at Microsoft. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7BoTBy1aHVM
On January 21, 2026, my friend Gabriele, founder of https://www.metanoia.community/ spoke to us about how to take on Big Tech and big corporations in general. Every single one of us has the power to make a dent against big corporations and vote with our dollars. Gabriele will talk about how to turn this into action.
Agenda:
In this session we will discuss of the ACTIONS that we can all take in order to decentralise power away from Big Corporations, Banks and bureaucracies and back to the local level. With a world spinning out of control, what is needed is a network of de-centralised and self-assembling groups more than corporate giants that centralise everything in the hands of few powerful corporations.
Freedom Advocacy Network 