Sari Bashi

Sari Bashi is a special advisor to the Program Office at Human Rights Watch and has worked for Human Rights Watch in the past as its Israel-Palestine Director. She is an expert in international humanitarian law and has taught the subject at Yale Law School, where she also served as a Robina Foundation Visiting Human Rights Fellow. She lectures and writes on Israeli policy toward the occupied Palestinian territory and is the author of Maqluba: Upside Down Love (Hebrew), a love story about the Israeli occupation. Prior to joining Human Rights Watch, Sari co-founded Gisha, the leading Israeli human rights group promoting the right to freedom of movement for Palestinians in Gaza, and served as Gisha’s executive director for nine years. She has also served as Research Director for Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). Prior to studying law, she worked as a correspondent for the Associated Press in Jerusalem and was a Fulbright scholar there. She is licensed in Israel and New York, earned her B.A. (summa cum laude) from Yale University and her J.D. from Yale Law School, and clerked on the Israeli Supreme Court. She is a marathon and ultra-marathon runner and author of the blog, “Bamba in Ramallah” (www.ummforat.com).