Professor Mohammed S. Wattad, the Schusterman Visiting Israel Professor at UC Irvine will speak about “Being an Israeli Arab: Life in Israel and the War with Hamas,” at Congregation Anshai Torah on Tuesday, October 21, beginning at 7:30pm. Photo by Yoni Lubliner
by Deb Silverthorn
Congregation Anshai Torah will welcome Professor Mohammed S. Wattad, to share thoughts on “Being an Israeli Arab: Life in Israel and the War with Hamas,” on Tuesday, October 21, beginning at 7:30pm. The evening, co-sponsored by Jewish and Israel Studies Program at UNT, the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas, and the Jewish Federation of Fort Worth and Tarrant County, is free and open to the community.
“I’ve lived in Israel all of my life, 34 years, and I’ve never shared such intense hostility and tension as in these last few months. People are torn between being an Arab or a Jew. In the past, they might have kept some arguments to themselves but you see blind condemnation without enough questions being asked and answered,” said Wattad, this year’s Schusterman Visiting Israel Professor at the University of California at Irvine. “There is a Jewish city close to the village where my family lives. There used to be people traveling in both directions and with this summer’s upheaval – that traffic has stopped.”
“It is an honor for Anshai Torah to host Professor Wattad, a bright young academic who has a wealth of knowledge and insight into a world we know superficially. We hope the community will join us as we deepen our appreciation for the complexity that defines life in Israel, today. This visit provides from Professor Wattad an opportunity to address issues that capture the world’s attention on a daily basis,” said Congregation Anshai Torah’s Rabbi Stefan Weinberg. “Too often we see the world as black or white, with little nuance. Rarely do we permit ourselves to be exposed to views that might add subtlety to our understanding of a position.”
Wattad is a legal scholar specializing in international and comparative criminal law, comparative constitutional law, international law and legal issues surrounding war, torture and terrorism. A graduate of Haifa University School of Law, including studies as an exchange student at Oxford University, Wattad holds a Masters of Law degree from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a Masters of Law degree from Columbia University, where he also earned his Juris Doctorate as a Fulbright Scholar. Wattad was a Halbert Fellow of the Munk Center and visiting scholar at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and a Minerva Fellow at the Max Planck Institute.
Wattad, who served as a legal clerk at the Supreme Court of Israel under the supervision of Justice Dalia Dorner and as a member of the Legal Task Force of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, is an assistant professor at Zefat College’s School of Law in Israel and editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Medicine and Law. He has expertise in the history of Israel and issues of self-image and identity in multi-cultural societies. He has written and spoken extensively on societal challenges confronting the Middle East and Israel, including relations between Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens and Israel’s external relations with surrounding Arab states.
“I believe that the Hamas chain of command and their soldiers are not ‘protected citizens’ but at the same time they are not lawful combatants. They should not have been allowed to run the elections, because they hold an unlawful arm. They are not part of the PLO and accordingly not part of the Palestinian Authority,” said Wattad who will earlier in the day speak on behalf of UNT’s Jewish & Israel Studies program. “According to the OSLO agreements, only the Palestinian Authority can represent the Palestinian People, and this authority is represented only by the PLO. In addition, they have taken control over the Gaza strip illegally.”
“It’s important to remember there isn’t a single Jewish identity, or a single Arab identity – those in Israel have come from around the world, with different backgrounds, and different views. In my work I hope to express myself and show the difference between my national identity as an Arab, and my citizenship as an Israeli. It is important to be able to personalize the identities and I believe it is possible to have a peace agreement,” said Wattad. “It is ‘only’ a question of courage.”