Muhanad Al Qaisy is a Palestinian refugee from the village of Beit Jebrin. His grandfather was forced to leave the family’s original village in 1948. Muhanad currently lives with his family in the Deheisheh Refugee Camp, located in the city of Bethlehem.
He holds a Master’s degree in Development and Emergency Practice from Oxford Brookes University. He is also a graduate of Bethlehem University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Social Work and Psychology.
Muhanad worked for 13 years as a project officer with the Joint Advocacy Initiative (JAI) of the YMCA/YWCA. He leads the Olive Tree Campaign, a project established to raise international awareness about the situation in occupied Palestine. The campaign also supports local Palestinian farmers in protecting their lands from Israeli confiscation by planting olive trees.
In 2024, Muhanad became the director of the JAI. He has represented the program on various global platforms to raise awareness and talk about the reality of living under military occupation.