Mohammed Abu Amara (Muḥammad Abū ‘Amāra) (محمد أبو عمارة), age 79, was a scholar-jurist who had served as Dean of the Faculty of Law at al-Azhar University in Gaza, officiated as a judge in Palestinian courts, and wrote two books and a number of articles focused on his field of expertise, contemporary administrative law in Palestine.
During the time Dr. Abu Amara was dean, the Faculty of Law expanded and integrated more practical training into its curriculum. Dr. Abu Amara underscored the importance of this development on the occasion of the first mock criminal court held at the university in 2006, an event attended by university administrators, faculty, a delegation of members of the judiciary, and many law students, male and female. In his opening welcome, Dr. Abu Amara remarked that, “We are embarking on a practical, applied activity that will move us from the theoretical to the practical in a mock criminal trial similar to the criminal trials that take place in the corridors of the judiciary and the halls of the courts. This represents a distinct qualitative shift in the formation of our progeny, the judges of the future.”
Dr. Abu Amara was also an active scholar who published a book-length work in 1993 on administrative law in Palestine: Administrative Law: The Scope of Public Administration in Palestine and the Gaza Strip. This was followed by his three-part study in 1998, Administrative Justice in Palestine and the Gaza Strip. In addition, he authored a number of academic articleson topics that ranged from the disciplinary liability of public employees in Palestine to the concept of the administrative contract in the era of the Palestinian Authority.
Dr. Abu Amara was killed on 5 November 2023, along with several family members, when Israeli aircraft bombed without warning the building in Gaza City where they had taken refuge.
