Reema Dodin to be first Palestinian-American White House staffer

President-elect Joe Biden announced on Monday that Reema Dodin, a Palestinian-American, will serve alongside Shuwanza Goff as a deputy director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs.
Our White House Senior staff will work with President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris to implement a bold agenda that will build our nation back better than before and ensure every American has a fair shot.https://t.co/ruN2HkW4P5
— Biden-Harris Presidential Transition (@Transition46) November 23, 2020
Dodin will be the first Palestinian-American to serve as a White House staffer.
Dodin was born to Jordanian-Palestinian immigrants, and she’s originally from Dura, near Hebron.
Dodin served as deputy chief of staff to Democratic Senator Richard Durbin and has also served on the Judiciary subcommittee on human rights and the law. She’s a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In a statement, Senator Richard Durbin praised Biden’s choice, noting that Dodin started working for him 14 years ago.
“In short, Reema is just what our new president needs to help him in the Senate,” Durbin said.
In 2001, Dodin took part in a demonstration at the University of California at Berkeley called the university to divest from Israel. The demonstrators compared the occupation state to apartheid South Africa, according to the Berkeley Daily Planet, a local news publication.