Odeliya Matter is a program assistant for the Middle East Policy team. Odeliya assists the team in efforts to lobby for nonviolent U.S. engagement to promote peace and prosperity in the region, reduce violence, and resolve long lasting conflicts. As Odeliya herself grew up in Jerusalem, she has a specific perspective, built upon professional and personal experience, and is especially invested in promoting positive change for the region.
Odeliya was recently graduated from Sapir College in Sderot, Israel, with a bachelor’s degree in Media and Communications (a focus on journalism). Throughout her studies, she concentrated on Israeli mainstream media’s role in exacerbating existing conflicts, while focusing on ways to cover local issues with greater representation for minority groups.
In 2022, Odeliya co-founded Negev Media, an organization promoting representational and solution-based media regarding the Arab Bedouin struggle for human rights and equality in the Negev/Naqab region of Israel/Palestine. She has also served as the field and media coordinator for Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality (NCF), an organization aiming to achieve full civil rights and equality for all residents of the Negev/Naqab region through lobbying locally and internationally, public advocacy, media, and field work. Since 2020, Odeliya has been a teaching fellow with the Forum for Regional Thinking, a think tank aiming to bring about change in the way the Israeli public perceives the Middle East, encouraging critical thought and a complex discourse about the region.
In her free time, Odeliya enjoys gardening, hiking, and painting.