Maureen Murphy

Maureen Murphy is a journalist and Palestine solidarity activist from Chicago. She spent a few years living and traveling throughout the Middle East, interning for the Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq in the occupied West Bank in 2004-06 before she was denied entry and deported by the Israeli government. She also lived in Lebanon in 2007-08, learning about the human rights situation for Palestine refugees and the impact of U.S. foreign policy there. Back in Chicago, she has organized to end U.S. aid to the Israeli occupation through her work with the Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago. A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Murphy is also managing editor of the award-winning, independent online publication The Electronic Intifada.

Maureen has stated that she refuses to participate in the grand jury fishing expedition. She refuses to name the names of activists she has worked with in the United States. And she also refuses to name the names of Palestinians struggling for liberation and self-determination. As she witnessed while living in the West Bank, Palestinian activists are routinely jailed and often extra judicially executed by the Israeli military. Maureen believes that the U.S. government should spend taxpayers' money on public services and improving our communities, instead of war and occupation and invasive investigations into social justice movements.