Jump to content

Rabea Eghbariah

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rabea Eghbariah
Born
Haifa, Israel
Occupation(s)Lawyer and scholar
Academic background
Education
Academic work
DisciplineLaw
Sub-disciplineHuman Rights
InstitutionsHarvard Law School

Rabea Eghbariah (ربيع إغبارية) is a Palestinian human rights lawyer and legal scholar.[1][2][3] He is currently completing his S.J.D. at Harvard Law School, where he focuses on the socio-legal aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.[1][4][5]

Eghbariah’s work has gained international attention for his proposal to recognize the Nakba as a legal concept within international legal frameworks, similar to how terms like apartheid and genocide are treated.[6] His scholarship triggered academic and public debate, with controversy surrounding the censorship of his writings by the Harvard Law Review and Columbia Law Review.[6]

Education

[edit]

Eghbariah earned his B.Sc. from the University of Haifa in 2012. He then attended Tel Aviv University, where he earned an LL.B. in 2015.[7] He later completed an LL.M. at Harvard Law School in 2020, receiving the Irving Oberman Memorial Prize in Legal History.[8]

Eghbariah is completing his S.J.D. at Harvard Law School, under the supervision of scholars such as Noah Feldman and Rashid Khalidi.[8] Feldman described Eghbariah as “one of the most brilliant students I’ve taught in 20 years as a law professor,”[9] while Khalidi praised his research for providing “an entirely original and very intelligent analysis.”[10]

Career

[edit]

Eghbariah began his legal career as an appellate public defender before joining the Adalah Legal Center, where he argued cases relating to Palestinian rights.[11][12][13][14] At Adalah, he represented Palestinian Clients from Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Israel.[6]

His work included challenging Israel's Cyber Unit, a secretive arm of the Israeli government that collaborates with tech companies to remove online content, often targeting Palestinian social media posts.[15][16] In 2022, Eghbariah argued before the Israeli Supreme Court that the Israeli family reunification law “creates two separate legal tracks, based on ethno-national identity; one, mainly for Jewish-Israeli citizens and the other for Palestinian citizens and residents of the state who wish to unite with their spouses who live in the Occupied West Bank,”[17] adding that Israel’s ban on Palestinian family unification would not have passed in Apartheid South Africa.[18] In October 2023, Israeli airstrikes killed 12 members of the Nabaheen family in Gaza whom Eghbariah represented.[19]

In collaboration with artist Jumana Manna, Eghbariah co-scripted the 2022 film Foragers, which explores Israels criminalization of foraging wild herbs such as za'atar and akkoub.[20] The film drew on his work, which challenged Israel's use of nature protection laws as a tool of control over Palestinian land and resources.[21][22][23] The film received acclaim. [24][25][26]

Nakba articles and censorship

[edit]

Eghbariah argues for "Nakba as a Legal Concept", which frames the Nakba not only as a historical event but as a legal and ongoing process of displacement, fragmentation, and denial of self-determination.[27] His thesis argues that the ongoing Nakba should be classified similarly to other internationally recognized crimes against humanity such as apartheid or genocide.[28]

Harvard Law Review article

[edit]

This concept first became the center of controversy in November 2023 when his essay “The Ongoing Nakba: Toward a Legal Framework for Palestine” was solicited by two editors, edited, and fact-checked by the Harvard Law Review, but retracted following an intervention from the Harvard Law Review president, Apsara Iyer.[29] HLR online chair Tascha Shariahi-Parsa wrote to Eghbariah that the decision to revoke the article “did not involve any substantive or technical aspects of your piece” but rather “revolved around concerns about editors who might oppose or be offended by the piece.”[30][31][32]

An emergency meeting of over 100 editors of the Harvard Law Review was called and an anonymous vote was held, in which 63% of editors voted against publication.[33][29] HLR issued a public statement emphasizing that stated:

"Like every academic journal, the Harvard Law Review has rigorous editorial processes governing how it solicits, evaluates, and determines when and whether to publish a piece. An intrinsic feature of these internal processes is the confidentiality of our 104 editors’ perspectives and deliberations. Last week, the full body met and deliberated over whether to publish a particular Blog piece that had been solicited by two editors. A substantial majority voted not to proceed with publication."

— Harvard Law Review, A Note, [34]

Over 25 editors issued a dissenting statement noting that:

“[The] piece was originally solicited for publication on the Harvard Law Review Blog. Days before the finalized piece was to be posted, at a time when the Law Review was facing a public intimidation and harassment campaign, the journal’s leadership intervened to stop publication. The body of editors—none of whom are Palestinian—voted to sustain that decision. We are unaware of any other solicited piece that has been revoked by the Law Review in this way. This unprecedented decision threatens academic freedom and perpetuates the suppression of Palestinian voices. We dissent.”[29][33][35]

In one of his responses to the Harvard Law Review editors, Eghbariah wrote, “This is discrimination. Let’s not dance around it — this is also outright censorship. It is dangerous and alarming."[36]

Over 100 law professors, including legal scholars Duncan Kennedy, William Schabas, and Makau Mutua, signed an open letter describing the censorship as “authoritarian” and expressing concern over the impact on academic freedom.[35] Harvard Law School professor Ryan Doerfler praised the article for being “a forceful piece of legal scholarship.”[37] Yale Law School professor Asli Bali described the article as an “excellent piece of legal scholarship.”[38] One Harvard Law Review editor published an opinion piece criticizing the decision to revoke Eghbariah’s piece as “acquiescing to the Palestine exception to free speech.”[39]

Columbia Law Review article

[edit]

Following Harvard Law Review's decision to not publish Eghbariah’s essay, the Columbia Law Review commissioned Eghbariah to write an expanded version to be published with the Review.[40] In June 2024, the article, now over a hundred pages long, titled “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept,” was published on the CLR website.[41] Following its publication, the Columbia Law Review Board of Directors shut down the Law Review's website to prevent access to Eghbariah’s article, citing “deviation from the Review’s usual processes.” [41]

The suspension of the website sparked another controversy, leading several Columbia professors to openly criticize the decision.[41][42] Editors at both the Harvard Law Review and Columbia Law Review wrote that “important procedural conventions that protect academic freedom were breached to silence Eghbariah [in both instances].”[41]

The article was ultimately restored following a strike by the Columbia Law Review editors.[41][43] Eghbariah became the first Palestinian to publish with the Columbia Law Review.[41] In response to the decision to suspend the website, Eghbariah stated that he saw the decision as “a microcosm of a broader authoritarian repression taking place across U.S. campuses”[40] and that “there is a continuum between the material reality in Gaza and shutting down these debates.”[6]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b "Rabea Eghbariah". Harvard Law School. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  2. ^ "Jumana Manna and Rabea Eghbariah in Conversation". MoMA PS1. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  3. ^ Eghbariah, Rabea (2023-11-03). "Opinion | An Unarmed Teen Was Shot During a Cease-Fire. Israel Was Never Held to Account". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  4. ^ "The Palestine Exception: A Panel on Repression and Resistance (Bell Collective Conference)". Harvard Law School. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  5. ^ "Harvard Law Review bans article on Israeli genocide in Gaza". Middle East Monitor.
  6. ^ a b c d Guyer, Jonathan (9 Jun 2024). "Why are America's elite universities so afraid of this scholar's paper?". The Guardian.
  7. ^ "Following Adalah intervention: Israel reformulating ban on harvesting wild herbs used in - Adalah". www.adalah.org. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  8. ^ a b "Rabea Eghbariah". Harvard Law School. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  9. ^ Guyer, Jonathan (2024-06-09). "Why are America's elite universities so afraid of this scholar's paper?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  10. ^ Thakker, Natasha Lennard, Prem (2024-06-04). "Columbia Law Review Refused to Take Down Article on Palestine, So Its Board of Directors Nuked the Whole Website". The Intercept. Retrieved 2024-11-01.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ "Israeli prosecutor reveals: Requests for jail without bail until end of trial for Facebook - Adalah". www.adalah.org. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  12. ^ "Rabea Eghbariah". rpl.hds.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  13. ^ "Introducing Rabea Eghbariah, 2023 FMEP Fellow". Foundation for Middle East Peace. 2023-02-27. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  14. ^ "The Terrorism Smear: Israel's Move to Shut Down Palestinian Human Rights Work". Foundation for Middle East Peace. 2021-11-05. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  15. ^ Israeli Supreme Court green lights Israel's 'Cyber Unit' that works with social media giants to censor user content, Retrieved 2024-06-30
  16. ^ Goldstein, Luke (2021-07-12). "How a Secretive Cyber Unit Censors Palestinians". The American Prospect. Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  17. ^ The Israeli Supreme Court held a hearing on 9 petitions challenging the ban on Palestinian family. Retrieved 2024-06-30
  18. ^ "Israel's ban on Palestinian family unification would not have passed even in Apartheid South Africa - Adalah". www.adalah.org. Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  19. ^ "An Unarmed Teen Was Shot During a Cease-Fire. Israel Was Never Held to Account".
  20. ^ "Jumana Manna and Rabea Eghbariah in Conversation". MoMA PS1. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  21. ^ "Where Nature Ends and Settlements Begin - Journal #113". www.e-flux.com. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  22. ^ Snaije, Olivia (2022-02-10). "In the West Bank, Plants Are Political". New Lines Magazine. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  23. ^ "Following Adalah intervention: Israel reformulating ban on harvesting wild herbs used in - Adalah". www.adalah.org. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  24. ^ Simon, Alissa (2022-04-12). "'Foragers' Review: Grassroots Filmmaking in More Ways Than One". Variety. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  25. ^ Hawa, Kaleem (2022-11-10). "Jumana Manna's Peasant Politics". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  26. ^ Trouillot, Terence (2023-01-27). "Editor's Picks: Jumana Manna's Agrarian Satire". Frieze. Retrieved 2024-09-26.
  27. ^ ""The Law Cannot Let Itself See the Nakba"". Jewish Currents. Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  28. ^ Eghbariah, Rabea (May 2024). "Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept" (PDF). Columbia Law Review. 124 (4): 887–992. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2024-06-05. Retrieved 2024-06-05.
  29. ^ a b c Lennard, Natasha (2023-11-22). "Harvard Law Review Editors Vote to Kill Article About Genocide in Gaza". The Intercept. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  30. ^ Tait, Robert (2023-11-22). "Harvard journal accused of censoring article alleging genocide in Gaza". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  31. ^ Tait, Robert (2023-11-22). "Harvard journal accused of censoring article alleging genocide in Gaza". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  32. ^ "We watched Ivy League law reviews censor Palestinian scholars first-hand". The Guardian. 2024-06-11. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  33. ^ a b Eghbariah, Rabea (2023-11-22). "The "Harvard Law Review" Refused to Run This Piece About Genocide in Gaza". ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  34. ^ "A Note". Harvard Law Review. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  35. ^ a b "Open Statement by University Law Teachers on Academic Freedom". Opinio Juris. 2023-12-08. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  36. ^ Lennard, Natasha (2023-11-22). "Harvard Law Review Editors Vote to Kill Article About Genocide in Gaza". The Intercept. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  37. ^ Lennard, Natasha (2023-11-22). "Harvard Law Review Editors Vote to Kill Article About Genocide in Gaza". The Intercept. Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  38. ^ Lennard, Natasha (2023-11-22). "Harvard Law Review Editors Vote to Kill Article About Genocide in Gaza". The Intercept. Retrieved 2024-11-01.
  39. ^ "The Harvard Law Review's Palestine Exception | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  40. ^ a b Jake Offenhartz (June 5, 2024). "After publishing an article critical of Israel, Columbia Law Review's website is shut down by board". Associated Press.
  41. ^ a b c d e f Thakker, Natasha Lennard, Prem (2024-06-04). "Columbia Law Review Refused to Take Down Article on Palestine, So Its Board of Directors Nuked the Whole Website". The Intercept. Retrieved 2024-06-04.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  42. ^ Guyer, Jonathan (2024-06-09). "Why are America's elite universities so afraid of this scholar's paper?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
  43. ^ Ali, Ayaan. "Columbia Law Review student editors to strike after directors intervene with article on Nakba". Columbia Daily Spectator. Retrieved 2024-09-27.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rabea_Eghbariah&oldid=1254984319"