A conversation with Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director, Human Rights Watch

13 Jul 2021

pittadmin

Announced by the University of Pittsburgh

Join the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University for a conversation with Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch moderated by CCAS professor Dr. Fida Adely.

Shakir will discuss the recent HRW report he was the lead author on, "A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution."

About Omar Shakir

Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine Director at Human Rights Watch, investigates human rights abuses in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Prior to his current role, he was a Bertha Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Rights, where he focused on US counterterrorism policies, including legal representation of Guantanamo detainees. As the 2013-14 Arthur R. and Barbara D. Finberg Fellow at Human Rights Watch, he investigated human rights violations in Egypt, including the Rab’a massacre, one of the largest killings of protesters in a single day. A former Fulbright Scholar in Syria, Omar holds a JD from Stanford Law School, where he co-authored a report on the civilian consequences of US drone strikes in Pakistan as a part of the International Human Rights & Conflict Resolution Clinic, an MA in Arab Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Affairs, and a BA in International Relations from Stanford. He speaks English and Arabic.

Summary of "A Threshold Crossed"

About 6.8 million Jewish Israelis and 6.8 million Palestinians live today between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River, an area encompassing Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), the latter made up of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Throughout most of this area, Israel is the sole governing power; in the remainder, it exercises primary authority alongside limited Palestinian self-rule. Across these areas and in most aspects of life, Israeli authorities methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy. In pursuit of this goal, authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.

Register Here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-threshold-crossed-with-omar-shakir-direct...

Event Date: 
Tuesday, July 13, 2021 - 12:00pm to 1:15pm
Institution(s): 
Sponsored By: 
Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University
Location: 
online