Launch event of partnership between Queen Mary School of Law and The Institute of Law at Birzeit University, Palestine
Earlier this year, the Centre for Law and Society in a Global Context and the International State Crime Initiative, based in the School of Law, partnered with Birzeit University’s Institute of Law in Palestine. The partnership was inaugurated on 28 November with an online event titled ‘Legal Education in Palestine’, that brought together law students and staff from both universities.
With synchronous Arabic-English translation, over 30 participants were able to learn about what legal education looks like in Palestine and how it is persistently delivered under Israeli occupation.
In the four presentations that students at Birzeit’s School of Law made, participants were able to hear how students think critically about law and legal institutions, not least because of the distinct formation of their own legal system (layered with Customary, British, Ottoman, Egyptian and Jordanian law, Israeli military law, and the extra-territorial application of Israeli law to illegal Israeli settlements) but also because of an ambivalence toward international law.
Reflections on legal education, however, were not limited to the content of the curriculum. As a result of Israel’s occupation, law students spoke candidly about the myriad problems they were confronted with, including uncertainty about where they might be able to practice, the difficulties of Gazan Palestinians studying at Birzeit University, and the threat of incursions by the Israeli army on their campus. Indeed, as recently as this week, two students were arrested at Birzeit University by the Israeli army, who had attacked a university guard and damaged university property.
In her presentation, Amaal, a law student and Co-Ordinator of the Right to Education Campaign provided detail about how everyday banalities, like travelling to university, become ordeals as her and her peers would have to navigate Israeli checkpoints and the threat of possible administrative detention - the process of being detained without charge, which can be renewed indefinitely. One of Queen Mary’s LLM students, an alumna of Birzeit Law School, Lana Abdalkareem Taher Barghoutha, said the event highlighted the ‘difficulties that Palestinian students are forced to face during their college study’ and that ‘all law students worldwide should know about [it], the complexity of legal system, the difficulty in accessing and depriving education, and freedom to express their opinions because of all the political situation in Palestine’.
Other interventions provided an exegesis of the British Mandate period in Palestine, particularly its own narrativizing of how the imperial imposition of its law was a ‘civilising force’. Those at Queen Mary, therefore, learned much about how conditions of occupation come to bear on law schools in Palestine. Fernando Quintana, a doctoral candidate at the School of Law, spoke about how ‘the joint workshop was very illuminating but also very challenging. This kind of experience forces us to think about what we can do from law schools based in the UK’.
What characterised many of the students’ presentations was, understandably, a cynicism about law. Some sought to offer moral condemnation of its content and enforcement (or lack thereof). One student noted law’s laggardness, captured by the recent International Criminal Court arrest warrants coming a year after the beginning of what the International Court of Justice has said could plausibly be genocide in Gaza.
The presentation was followed by an exchange between staff and students of both universities, in particular asking questions about law’s positioning as either a force of subordination or emancipation. Over the past year - and indeed some 75 years - international law itself has been on trial. For some, the events of the past 12 months have redeemed law (to some degree) or began to validate its lofty claims of universal justice. Many, including those at this event, remained sceptical.
Several senior professors from the School of Law also participated. Professor Ratna Kapur, Global Chair in Law at Queen Mary University of London, said that the event was ‘a revelatory dialogue between students and faculty’ where ‘Birzeit students shared their experiences of law and everyday life under occupation and an ongoing genocide, exposing how this stood in stark contrast to the celebrations at the global level of small victories in international law that have no impact on this reality’. Professor Kapur recalled from the event how ‘the journey to school includes: two to three hours of humiliation at checkpoints en route to their university; arbitrary military raids on campus to arrest and imprison students in disregard of administrative procedures; and no freedom of movement or scholarly exchange with other universities within the West Bank or Gaza.’ Quoting one of the Birzeit students, she reiterated how ‘Israelis can kill your entire future.’
Anniversary Professor of Legal Theory, Professor Roger Cotterrell, said ‘it was a privilege to hear online from students and staff at Birzeit University. It was moving to listen to their first-hand accounts of conditions under which they are continuing, despite everything, to maintain high-level education and scholarship. It is impossible not to admire their resilience under an illegal occupation, as they face ongoing violence, harassment, disruption and uncertainty. They are helping to sustain an excellent university in the face of great personal and professional pressures and they deserve all the external support that can be given to them.’ There was a warm moment when professors at Birzeit were heartened to see Prof. Cotterrell at the event, many of whom had taught and cited his significant body of work in their classes.
Renite Gosal, a first-year LLB student at Queen Mary said that, ‘this event illuminated the harrowing realities faced by fellow law students at Birzeit University, who must navigate body searches, checkpoints, and the constant threat of military violence, arrests, and the destruction of their educational environment—all while striving to uphold their fundamental right to education, as enshrined in Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Law students at Birzeit identified the law as "part of the violence Palestinian scholars" suffer from, referring to Israeli military orders and three different legal systems in areas A, B, and C of the West Bank. Reflecting on the British legal system's historic role in perpetuating injustice in Palestine, the importance of solidarity among universities to safeguard academic freedom and human rights is clear. Hearing from Birzeit students was an honour, and I look forward to future collaboration.’
One comment which was especially striking came from another law student at Birzeit University, Abdallah. Often he said, critical engagements with law may get bogged down in high-theory but the reality of ‘war crimes’ or ‘genocide’ is an everyday reality that greets them on their doorstep.
Students have been encouraged to suggest proposals about how they may want to sustain connections between the two cohorts. Dr Tanzil Chowdhury and Dr Thomas MacManus, authors of the partnership at Queen Mary, will continue to resist scholasticide in Palestine, and build spaces and opportunities for researchers from both universities to work with one another.
