Al-Awda Mourns the Death of Professor Hisham Sharabi

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition mourns the death of Palestinian intellectual Professor Hisham Sharabi who passed away on 13 January 2005. Dr. Sharabi died at the hospital of […]

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition mourns the death of Palestinian intellectual Professor Hisham Sharabi who passed away on 13 January 2005. Dr. Sharabi died at the hospital of the American University of Beirut, the university he graduated from in 1947. We extend heartfelt condolences and deepest sympathies to Sharabi’s family and friends.

Dr. Sharabi was born in 1927 in Jaffa, Palestine and had a prolific career of involvement in scholarship, politics, and grassroots activism that spanned six decades. He taught at Georgetown University and established its Center for Arab Studies. His many books and articles clearly delineated not only Arab and Palestinian history but laid out positive future directions.

Dr. Sharabi founded the Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development in Washington, DC in 1977. Later, the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine (CPAP) was created from this group. The Jerusalem Fund and CPAP have become important research and information centers on Palestine and the Arab world in the US and around the world.

Of particular note, the plight of the Palestinian refugees was an important priority in the work of Dr. Sharabi, CPAP, and the Jerusalem Fund over the last two decades. Recognizing the centrality of the Palestinian refugees’ right to return and the importance of grassroots activism for this right, Dr. Sharabi and CPAP generously supported Al-Awda not only with the first major national right to return rally we held in Washington DC in September 2000 but thereafter also.