Dr. Nahed Habib Allah a Professor in sociology at the Faculty of Graduate School - Arab American University, received an invitation from New School University in New York City to teach a course about Jerusalem as an expert in this field. This is considered to be the first time to teach such a course in an American university.
Dr. Nahed said that this course gives students a complete idea about the Holy City as it’s the center of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in its various national and religious dimensions. The course will discuss in details how the lives of the people of Jerusalem were affected by the Israeli occupation policies, and covers the period of mandate and the Palestinian national movements that emerged and developed during that period of the 1948 war until the joining part of Jerusalem to the State of Israel, as it will cover the occupation and joining all Jerusalem city in 1967. "
As she explained that she will focus on the stage called "permanent residence" imposed on the people of Jerusalem who defy the status imposed on them. Noting that the course will present the plans for developing Jerusalem, which excludes Palestinians and sieges its neighborhoods, also assuring the importance of focusing on the Palestinian identity and Israel's attempt to separate the people of Jerusalem from the rest of the Palestinians in West Bank.
She added, “Due to the importance of religion in the subject of Jerusalem, a large part of the course will be devoted to explain the Israeli narratives of Jerusalem and how Israel is trying to blur the Palestinian narratives and its Islamic and Christian components. The course will end with exposure of the international law and UN resolutions for Jerusalem.