Tamara Essayyad
Tamara Essayyad
Visiting Fellow
Biography
Tamara Essayyad is an international lawyer and negotiator with over 10 years of legal experience and over 20 years of international professional experience in the US, Europe, and the Middle East.
As Senior Legal Adviser to the UN supporting the Palestinian-Israeli Negotiations, Tamara Essayyad provided legal counsel on all matters related to the peace process including international law, treaties, and public policy. Additionally, she advised the State of Palestine on numerous economic cooperation agreements and legislative reform.
She has taught international law and policy for over a decade.
Education
JD – Howard University School of Law
LLM – Queen Mary University of London
MA – University of Leeds
BA – University of Nevada
Fellow – Harvard Negotiations Strategies Institute
Bar Associations and Membership
New York State Bar
Washington DC Bar
American Bar Association
American Society of International Law
Events
“Palestinian-Israeli Negotiations and International Law“
Sunday, February 11, 2023, 1:00 – 2:00 pm
Top Lawyer Examines International Legal Response to the War on Gaza
Speaking at the most recent Palestine Speaker Series event at GU-Q, international lawyer and negotiator Tamara Essayyad emphasized the role of international legal systems in the pursuit of peace where negotiations and diplomacy fall short. In conversation with Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Arab Media Studies at Northwestern University in Qatar Khaled AL-Hroub, Essayyad highlighted the importance of international legal cases that keep international scrutiny on the events taking place in Palestine.
Course
At Georgetown University in Qatar, Tamara Essayyad taught a one-credit course INAF-2170-72: Negotiating Freedom: Palestinian-Israeli Negotiations and the Endgame.
Description
The first negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians were through secret channels in the late 1960s following the 1967 Israeli military occupation of Palestine. It wasn’t until the late 1980s that meaningful talks culminated in the Oslo Accords and the “Palestinian-Israeli Peace Process.”
Thirty years after the Oslo Accords, and through numerous rounds of negotiations, neither side is closer to a just, lasting peace agreement whereby Palestinians and Israelis can move forward and close all final status issues still on the table. The final status issues include borders, prisoners, the status of Jerusalem, Palestinian right of return, Israeli settlements, security, and water.
This course aims to provide a historical overview of past Palestinian-Israeli peace and negotiations efforts, as well as an examination of the challenges (both historical and contemporary) facing negotiators to the current and ongoing conflict. We will tackle negotiations strategies and their applicability within the parameters of international law to understand the depths of conflict negotiations and pertinence to Palestine/Israel.
No prior legal background is required to take this course. The course is also open to students with varying levels of background knowledge about and a diverse range of viewpoints on Israel/Palestine.