Raja Shehadeh (Arabic: رجا شحادة, born 6 July 1951) is aPalestinianlawyer, human rights activist andwriter.[1] He co-founded the award-winning Palestinian human rights organizationAl-Haq in 1979.[1] In 2008, he won theOrwell Prize, a British award for political writing, for his bookPalestinian Walks.[2]
In addition to his legal work Shehadeh has written a number of books about Palestine through the lens of his life. He tells the story of his early life and his relationship with his father inStrangers in the House. This memoir was described byThe Economist as "distinctive and truly impressive".[12] In 2008, he won theOrwell Prize, Britain's pre-eminent award for political writing, for his bookPalestinian Walks.[2]In July 2018, his biographicalWhere the Line is Drawn: Crossing Boundaries in Occupied Palestine was chosen forBBC Radio 4'sBook of the Week, and was narrated by actorPeter Polycarpou.
In 2016, Shehadeh took part in a project, initiated by the "Breaking the Silence" organization, to write an article for a book on theIsraeli occupation, to mark the 50th anniversary of theSix-Day War.[13][14] The book was edited byMichael Chabon andAyelet Waldman, and was published under the titleKingdom of Olives and Ash: Writers Confront the Occupation, in June 2017.[15]
London Review of Books editor Adam Shatz cited Shehadeh as one of two people who have provided a formative influence of his understanding of the Middle East conflict, writing that "Anguished and somewhat fragile, he is a man who, in spite of his understandable bitterness, has continued to dream of a future beyond the occupation, a kind of neo-Ottoman federation where Arabs and Jews would live as equals."[16]
Civilian Administration of the Occupied West Bank - Analysis of Israeli Military Government Order No 947, Law in the Service of Man. (1982)
The Third Way. A Journal of Life in the West Bank. Quartet Books Ltd. (1982)
Samed: Journal of a West Bank Palestinian, Franklin Watts. (1984)
Occupier's Law: Israel and the West Bank, Institute for Palestine Studies. (1988)[20]
Les Palestiniens de l'intérieur: les arrière-plans politiques, éco et sociaux de l'Intifada,(In French) Institut des études palestiniennes. (1989)[21]
The Palestinian People in the Occupied Territories and Israel: The Political and Social Background of the Intifada,(In Arabic) Institute for Palestine Studies. (1990)
The Sealed Room: Selections from the Diary of a Palestinian Living Under Israeli Occupation, September 1990-August 1991. (1992)
The Declaration of Principles & the legal system in the West Bank, PASSIA. (1994)
From Occupation to Interim Accords: Israel And the Palestinian Territories, BRILL.(1997)
Strangers in the house. Steerforth Press. 2002.[22]
