This first session brings together leading legal scholars Susan Akram, Jamil Dakwar, and Nimer Sultany to address "The State Question." While taking account of recent developments at the United Nations, the discussion will range into wider issues connected with the history and current determinants of Palestinian state forms.

Future topics for CPS public events on "Palestine & Law" will include property issues, from possession to dispossession; the sphere of litigation; the legal status of the refugee; and regimes of imprisonment.

Jamal Zahalka, Member of the Israeli Knesset, will discuss the myth of Israeli democracy.

Moderated by Professor Bashir Abu-Manneh.

Jamal Zahalka, has been a member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, since 2003. He is a member of different committees in the Knesset that address education, culture, sports, local government and economic affairs. He is the head of the National Democratic Assembly, a party representing the Palestinians citizens of Israel. He holds a PhD in pharmaceutical studies from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights, will discuss the Israeli pattern of flagrant defiance of international law, as sustained by American geopolitical leverage inside the UN and beyond. 

This talk will be moderated by Bashir Abu-Manneh, Assistant Professor of Literature at Barnard College.