| Muhammad Hallaj | |||||||
| Birth Date: | 1932 | ||||||
| Birth Place: | Qalqilya, Mandatory Palestine | ||||||
| Occupation: |
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Muhammad Hallaj (1932–2017) was a Palestinian scholar and writer on Palestinian affairs. He could not pursue his academic career in Palestine in the 1980s and settled in the US. He served as a member of the Palestinian National Council.
Hallaj was born in Qalqilya, Mandatory Palestine, in 1932. He attended a high school in Jaffa. Following the Nakba the family left their hometown.[1] He obtained his Ph.D. in political sciences from the University of Florida in 1966.
Following his graduation Hallaj joined the Jacksonville University, Florida, as a lecturer and taught there until 1970.[1] [2] Then he taught at the University of Jordan in Amman from 1970 to 1975.[2] During his tenure Hallaj served as dean of social sciences.[1] Next he joined Birzeit University on the West Bank in 1975 and became a full professor.[1] He was appointed vice president of Birzeit University and then was named as the first director of the Council for Higher Education in the West Bank and Gaza.[1] He taught at Birzeit University until 1981 when he went to the US for a study visit at Harvard University. After the end of his study visit in 1983 he returned to Birzeit University, but the Israeli authorities did not grant him a work permit.[1] Therefore, he had to leave Palestine and settled in the US.[2]
Hallaj was the editor of a magazine entitled Palestine Perspectives between 1983 and 1991.[1] He was the director of the Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine from 1991 to 1994. He was made a member of the Palestinian National Council in 1991.[2] He headed Palestinian delegation during the multilateral talks on refugees which had been initiated after the Madrid Conference in 1991.
Hallaj was a board member of various Palestinian organizations such as the commissioners of the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens’ Rights.[3]
Hallaj published many articles on Palestinian affairs.[3] He was among the contributors of the 1988 book entitled Blaming the Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question edited by Edward Said and Christopher Hitchens.[4]
Hallaj died in 2017.[2]