Biography 
Dr. Amal Jadou is the deputy chief of the PLO Mission in Washington DC. Previous to this position, Dr. Jadou served as the director-general of international affairs at the Office of the President of Palestine, a post she assumed following the 2006 elections. In that capacity Dr. Jadou served as a close aide to the President on international relations. She accompanied the President in his meetings locally and internationally and was the only woman to accompany him as part of the Palestinian delegation to the Annapolis Conference. Dr. Jadou worked closely with the diplomatic corps serving in Palestine and with Palestinian diplomats around the globe. Ms. Jadou, who is active within Fatah’s youth movement, began working for the government in February 2005 as foreign policy adviser to the prime minister. She represented her country in many international and local conferences dealing with the politics in her country, the peace process, women and youth issues. She also took part in several back-channel negotiations on behalf of the Presidency. She has also worked for several non-governmental organizations focusing on political prisoners, refugees, women, and children. Born in a refugee camp near Bethlehem, Ms. Jadou is inspired by the challenges of living in a patriarchal society and under Israeli occupation. For two months in 1998, she lived with several Native American families in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, and Winnipeg and Labrador, Canada—an experience that moved her to understand the suffering of other peoples of the world. Motivated by her mother and grandmother to facilitate positive change, Ms. Jadou pursued a PhD at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, which she completed in 2009, and a graduate fellowship in the program on negotiation at Harvard Law School. She earned a master’s degree from Birzeit University in 2000 and a bachelor’s degree from Bethlehem University in 1995. Dr. Jadou was the first to ever win the international prestigious SYLFF leadership prize. She shared that prize with Dr. Egla Martinez-Salazar from Guatemala and Goran Svilanovic, the ex-foreign minister of Serbia. (02.2010)