Princeton Palestinian Studies Colloquium: Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept

Meaning “Catastrophe” in Arabic, the term “al-Nakba” (النكبة) is often used to refer to the ethnic cleansing of over 750,000 Palestinians and the destruction of hundreds of Palestinian villages between 1947 to 1949. But the Nakba has undergone a metamorphosis; it has evolved from a historical calamity into a brutally sophisticated structure of oppression. This lecture examines Nakba not only as a pivotal historical event but as a comprehensive framework for understanding the Palestinian condition, one that warrants legal recognition.

Rabea Eghbariah is a human rights lawyer and legal scholar currently completing a doctorate in Juridical Science at Harvard Law School. Eghbariah had worked as an appellate public defender before joining the Haifa-based Adalah Legal Center, where he argued landmark Palestinian rights cases. His scholarship conceptualizing the Nakba as a legal framework has sparked extensive public discourse.