Abbas Shiblak (born 6 January 1944) is a Palestinian academic, historian, Research Associate at the

Refugee Studies Centre The Refugee Studies Centre (RSC) was established in 1982, as part of the University of Oxford's Department of International Development (Queen Elizabeth House), in order to promote the understanding of the causes and consequences of forced migrati ...

(RSC),

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

(a post he has held since 1992), free-lance writer, former diplomat and an advocate of human rights. Shiblak specialises in refugee-host country relationships and international humanitarian law. For a few years, he has been working on a paper on the topic of

statelessness In international law, a stateless person is someone who is "not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law". Some stateless people are also refugees. However, not all refugees are stateless, and many people who are s ...

in the Arab region. Shiblak founded Shaml, the Palestinian Refugee and Diaspora Centre in

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

, and also served as its first director. Shiblak was also a member of the Palestinian delegation to the peace talks on the "Working Group on Refugees".

Personal life

Shiblak was born in British Mandate

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

and, after completing his schooling in

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

, his university education in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, and working in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

, he moved to Britain in 1975, where he completed his postgraduate education in international relations. Shiblak then pursued a career in free-lance journalism, diplomacy, and developed an interest in refugee affairs and stateless communities, with particular reference to the Middle East. Shiblak resides in the United Kingdom.

Publications

Among his publications: * The Palestinian diaspora in Europe; Challenge of Adaptation and Identity (ed), Shaml & IJS, Jerusalem, 2005. * A new edition of his book on the Exodus of the Iraqi Jewish community 1949-1951, Saqi Books, London 2005. * Iraqi Jews: A History * The Lure of Zion: The Case of the Iraqi Jews * Residency status and civil rights of Palestinian refugees in Arab countries * Palestinians in Lebanon and the PLO * Statelessness among Palestinian Refugees

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shiblak, Abbas 1944 births Living people 21st-century Palestinian historians 20th-century Palestinian diplomats 20th-century Palestinian historians 21st-century Palestinian journalists Palestinian emigrants to the United Kingdom Academics of the University of Oxford