Rula Jebreal (born 24 April 1973) is a Palestinian foreign policy analyst, journalist, novelist and screenwriter with dual Israeli and Italian citizenship. She was a commentator for MSNBC.

Early life and education

Jebreal was born in Haifa, Israel, to Nigerian-born Othman Jebreal and his wife Zakia, and grew up in Jerusalem. Her father was a Sufi imam and a groundskeeper at Al-Aqsa Mosque. Her mother, who suffered from severe abuse in her childhood, committed suicide by walking into the sea and drowning in 1978, when Jebreal was 5. She and her sister Rania were immediately put into the Dar El-Tifel orphanage by their father and were raised there until 1991. She regards its founder, Hind Husseini, as her teacher and mother, crediting her with saving her life. In 1993, she received a scholarship from the Italian government to study at the University of Bologna, where she graduated with a degree in physiotherapy.

Career

Journalism

Jebreal worked as a journalist in Italy for twelve years. In 2006 she worked with Michele Santoro as an interviewer on AnnoZero, a political television show in Italy.

Books and films

Jebreal's first novel Miral was published in 2003. The film version, adapted by Jebreal, and directed by Julian Schnabel, was first released in 2010. Jebreal's second novel The Bride of Aswan was published in 2007. Her third book, Rejected, is a non-fiction study based on interviews with immigrants who have either made their way to successful careers in Italy or otherwise live on the margins of Italian society.

Personal life

She has a daughter, Miral, whose father is artist Davide Rivalta. Jebreal's collaboration with Julian Schnabel on Miral extended beyond the movie, being in a relationship with him from 2007 to 2011. In 2013, she married Arthur Altschul, Jr., son of banker Arthur Goodhart Altschul Sr. and a member of the Lehman family. She divorced Altschul in 2016 and started dating Roger Waters, founder of Pink Floyd. She is fluent in four languages: Arabic, Hebrew, English and Italian. She describes herself as a "secular Muslim".

Works