Rula Jebreal

Rula Jebreal was born in 1973 in Haifa

Jebreal was born in Haifa in 1973 and grew up in Jerusalem. Her father, born in Nigeria, was an imam and a groundskeeper at Al-Aqsa Mosque. After her mother's death in 1978, she and her sister Rania were raised at the Dar El-Tifel orphanage until 1991.

In 1993 she received an Italian government scholarship to study at the University of Bologna. She earned a degree in physiotherapy there and later turned to journalism.

She worked as a journalist in Italy for 12 years, writing for newspapers and then working in television. In 2006 she was an interviewer on the political show AnnoZero with Michele Santoro. She later worked as a commentator for MSNBC.

Her first novel, Miral, was adapted by her into a film directed by Julian Schnabel and released in 2010. Her second novel, The Bride of Aswan, came out in 2007. Her book Rejected is a nonfiction study based on interviews with immigrants in Italy.

She has a daughter, Miral, and was married to Arthur Altschul Jr. from 2013 to 2016. In 2026 she was criticized for remarks about Hakeem Jeffries, which the Congressional Black Caucus condemned as racist.