Rabea Eghbariah (ربيعإغبارية) is a Palestinian human rights lawyer and legal scholar. [1] [2] [3] He is currently completing his S.J.D. at Harvard Law School,where he focuses on the socio-legal aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. [1] [4] [5]
Eghbariah’s work has gained international attention for his proposal to recognize the Nakba as a legal concept within international legal frameworks,similar to how terms like apartheid and genocide are treated. [6] His scholarship triggered academic and public debate,with controversy surrounding the censorship of his writings by the Harvard Law Review and Columbia Law Review. [6]
Eghbariah earned his B.Sc. from the University of Haifa in 2012. He then attended Tel Aviv University,where he earned an LL.B. in 2015. [7] He later completed an LL.M. at Harvard Law School in 2020,receiving the Irving Oberman Memorial Prize in Legal History. [8]
Eghbariah is completing his S.J.D. at Harvard Law School,under the supervision of scholars such as Noah Feldman and Rashid Khalidi. [8] Feldman described Eghbariah as “one of the most brilliant students I’ve taught in 20 years as a law professor,” [9] while Khalidi praised his research for providing “an entirely original and very intelligent analysis.” [10]
Eghbariah began his legal career as an appellate public defender before joining the Adalah Legal Center,where he argued cases relating to Palestinian rights. [11] [12] [13] [14] At Adalah,he represented Palestinian Clients from Gaza,the West Bank,Jerusalem,and Israel. [6]
His work included challenging Israel's Cyber Unit,a secretive arm of the Israeli government that collaborates with tech companies to remove online content,often targeting Palestinian social media posts. [15] [16] In 2022,Eghbariah argued before the Israeli Supreme Court that the Israeli family reunification law “creates two separate legal tracks,based on ethno-national identity;one,mainly for Jewish-Israeli citizens and the other for Palestinian citizens and residents of the state who wish to unite with their spouses who live in the Occupied West Bank,” [17] adding that Israel’s ban on Palestinian family unification would not have passed in Apartheid South Africa. [18] In October 2023,Israeli airstrikes killed 12 members of the Nabaheen family in Gaza whom Eghbariah represented. [19]
In collaboration with artist Jumana Manna,Eghbariah co-scripted the 2022 film Foragers,which explores Israels criminalization of foraging wild herbs such as za'atar and akkoub. [20] The film drew on his work,which challenged Israel's use of nature protection laws as a tool of control over Palestinian land and resources. [21] [22] [23] The film received acclaim. [24] [25] [26]