St Mary’s Academic to Present Leading Lecture in Palestine

Prof Nur Masalha, Director of the Centre of Religion and History at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, will be giving the Constantine Zurayk Annual Memorial Lecture in Palestine on Tuesday 4th November. Held at Birzeit University, a leading institution of research and higher learning in the West Bank, Palestine, Prof Masalha will deliver a lecture entitled The Israeli Archives and the 1948 Palestinian Nakba. He will critically assess the impact of declassified Israeli archival and Hebrew sources on the production of the history and historiography of 1948, as well as the changing international academic debate on a key turning point in the modern history of the Middle East.The current President of Birzeit University, Prof Khalil Hindi, will chair the event. The Annual Memorial Lecture was set up in memory of Professor Constantine Zurayk, a prominent Arab academic and historian and former President of the American University of Beirut who emphasised the need to transform Arab society by means of rational thought and ethical revolution. It is organised by the Institute for Palestine Studies, which he co-founded. Prof Masalha previously shared his expertise on Palestinian history at the University of Malta earlier this year and has also co-edited a recent book on religion and politics in Palestine.