Manar is a 26 year old Arab Israeli student, graduate of the Technion, and currently at the Ben Gurion University specializing in environment and economic management. Manar is a qualified water engineer. She is also a graduate of the Arava Institute and knows Assaf and Liel from the NSL team of 2010.
Manar comes from an unusual background that is both Israeli and Palestinian and though it causes people to question her, she calls herself a proud Palestinian Israeli. She says if she is forced to deny one for the sake of the other, that she feels untrue to her own shared heritage and that she has grown up in both worlds.
She is an activist in leadership issues around the conflict and has participated in programs in Denmark and the USA and she was one of the young representatives from the Arab community chosen to meet and brief President and Mrs. George W Bush on their visit to the region.
She was also a participant on the Young Entrepreneur Program at Green Bay University, a program that selects the region’s most promising young entrepreneurs. Manar is someone ready to break through the boundaries and she is currently attending a group that seeks to present the Israeli story to the world. As an Arab Israeli, she says she loves to challenge the stereotypes that people have, especially when they get in the way of deeper understanding of the real issues that must be resolved.
In the summer of 2011, Manar interned at the World Bank.
Follow NSL