Also taking part in the event will be Mussa Amer Odeh, the head of the Diplomatic Mission of Palestine in Spain, and Pedro Martínez-Avial, Casa Árabe’s General Director.

Commemorating the “nakba,” or Palestinian catastrophe, has two different meanings. On the one hand, it means remembering that thousands of refugees were forced to flee their homes after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. And, on the other, we are reminded that Palestinians continue to suffer the consequences of that occupation on a on a daily basis. What has the Palestinian people’s experience been throughout these last seventy years? What can be learned from their difficult journey and what prospects can we envisage for the future? Within this context, what has the situation of Christians been under the occupation, and what role could they play?

P. Jamal Khader is a priest with the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and was ordained in 1988. After several years of pastoral experience, he continued his studies in Rome, at the Gregorian Pontificial University (1994-1998), where he earned his doctorate in Dogmatic Theology. Since 1998, Father Jamal has been teaching Dogmatic Theology at the Latin Patriarchate Seminary (Beit Jala) and at the University of Bethlehem. He was the President of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Bethlehem (2003-2013); Dean of the School of Arts at the University of Bethlehem (2008-2013) and Rector of the Latin Patriarchate Seminary (2013-2017). Since August of 2017, he has been the parish priest at the Holy Family   Catholic Church in Ramallah.

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