Kate Jessica Raphael

ate Raphael is a San Francisco Bay Area writer, feminist and queer activist and radio journalist, who makes her living as a law firm word processor. She lived in Palestine for eighteen months as a member of the International Women’s Peace Service, documenting human rights abuses and accompanying Palestinians as they attempted to live normal lives under occupation. At the end of her time in Palestine, she was imprisoned for over a month by the Israeli authorities and eventually deported. In 2011, she won a residency at Hedgebrook. She produces the weekly radio show, Women’s Magazine, on KPFA/Pacifica, which is heard throughout Northern and Central California. Her writing from Palestine has been included in the anthology Peace Under Fire (Verso), Reclaiming Quarterly, Left Turn, and websites including miftah and palestinemonitor.

She lives in Oakland, California, where she organizes direct action and educational campaigns for social and economic justice, queer liberation, opposing militarism and Palestine solidarity. She was a founding member of Act Against Torture, opposing US human rights abuses and indefinite detention. She is featured in the film Shutdown: The Rise and Fall of Direct Action to Stop the War.