A Palestinian American in Seattle holds her family's history close as war rages in Gaza

Sabrene Odeh of Seattle has spent a lifetime advocating for human rights and she only just turned 29 years old.

She went to her first protest for Palestinian rights with her father when she was 4. Since then, she has participated in demonstrations for the Black community, taken to the streets in support of Indigenous people in Washington state, and continued her activism on behalf of Palestinian human rights.

When she’s not protesting, Odeh works for the International Rescue Committee as an advocate for survivors of human trafficking. She knows the multi-generational impact of trauma, both from her own life and from the lives of the people she helps.

That work and her lifetime of activism has prepared her, in some sense, to respond to the Hamas attack on Israel Oct. 7, the Israeli assault on Gaza that followed, and the escalating violence in the West Bank, where much of her family still lives.

But the ongoing violence has gotten to her and her family. Her father, Amin, who talks weekly with his siblings who remain in the West Bank, hasn’t been sleeping. He was recently diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.