Law School Conducts a Seminar on the Dual Jordanian-Egyptian Administration of Hebron (1948-1949)

 

Hebron University College of Law and Political Science, through its Legal Clinics, organized a seminar on “Dual Jordanian-Egyptian Administration of Hebron (1948-1949)”. The main speaker at this seminar was Dr. Kimberly Katz, Professor of History at University Towson, Maryland, USA. Prof. Katz discussed the historical period that Hebron had undergone under the dual Egyptian–Jordanian rule during the Israeli-Arab war in Palestine, which lasted from April 1948 through April 1949, and came to an end by the signature of Jordanian-Israeli armistice agreement. Hebron then remained under Jordanian rule until June 1967 when it was occupied by Israel along with the rest of the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights of Syria, and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. The guest highlighted, by reviewing the diaries of two inhabitants of the city (an employee of Hebron municipality) and its countryside (a police officer), the competition between the two Arab Powers to gain control over the city and the loyalty of its Palestinian inhabitants. The study was also based on official documents revealed by the two governments as well as oral interviews conducted with a number of Hebronites who witnessed that period.

This seminar, which was attended by the Hebron University Charmain of the Board of Trustees Dr. Nabil Jabari along with some 50 professors and students of law and history as well as political science, comes as part of the College’s policy to study law and politics in multi-disciplinary approach and to attract scientific research that uncovers certain gaps existing in the study of law and history of the Middle East in general and Palestine in particular.