Raja Shehadeh (Arabic: رجا شحادة) is a Palestinian lawyer, human rights activist and writer. He is the author of Strangers in the House (2002), described by The Economist as “distinctive and truly impressive”, When the Bulbul Stopped Singing (2003), Palestinian Walks (2007), for which he won the 2008 Orwell Prize, and A Rift in Time (2010). Shehadeh trained as a barrister in London and is a founder of the human rights organization Al-Haq. He blogs regularly for the International Herald Tribune/The New York Times and lives in Ramallah, on the West Bank.
Books in order of publication (in English, French, Italian and Spanish):
The West Bank and the Rule of Law, International Commission of Jurists and Law in the Service of Man. (1980)
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)
Les Palestiniens de l’intérieur: les arrière-plans politiques, éco et sociaux de l’Intifada,(In French) Institut des études palestiniennes. (1989)
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.
Palestine, terre promise,(In French) PAYOT. (2003)
When the Bulbul Stopped Singing: A Diary of Ramallah under Siege (2003),(2024).
Palestinian Walks: Forays into a Vanishing Landscape (2007)
A Rift In Time: Travels With My Ottoman Uncle (2010)
2037: Le grand bouleversement,(In French) Galaade. (2011)
Occupation Diaries (2012)
Language of War, Language of Peace (2015)
Shifting Sands: The Unravelling of the Old Order in the Middle East, Profile Books. (2015)
Time and Remains of Palestine, Kehrer. (2015)
Un reino de olivos y ceniza: Escritores contra la ocupación de Palestina,(In Spanish) Literatura Random House. (2017)
Life Behind Israeli Checkpoints (2017)
Going Home: A Walk Through Fifty Years of Occupation, Profile Books. (2019)
We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir, Profile Books. (2022)
Palestina,(In Italian) Iperborea. (2023)
What Does Israel Fear From Palestine?, Profile Books. (2024).
Forgotten: Searching for Palestine’s Hidden Places and Lost Memorials, Profile Books. (2025)
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