On Wednesday, October 21, 2020, An-Najah National University held the fifth ‎live webinar about constitutions and the state of exception, as part of the ‎‎"Palestine During COVID-19: Impact, Response, and Co-Existence" series of ‎webinars, which have been organized by An-Najah University to tackle both the ‎immediate and long term effects of COVID-19 on the Occupied Palestinian ‎Territories.‎

A selected international high level group of experts and professors of ‎constitutional law, politics and philosophy participated in the webinar; ‎namely, Simon Mabon, Professor of international relations, Chair in ‎International Politics at Lancaster University, and Director of the ‎Richardson Institute, Nathan Brown, Professor of Political Science and ‎International Affairs at George Washington University, Dr. Francesco ‎Biagi, Senior Assistant Professor of Comparative Public Law at the ‎Department of Legal Studies of the University of Bologna, Asem Khalil, ‎Professor of public law, and Chair of H.H. Shaikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-‎Thani of Constitutional & International Law at Birzeit University, and ‎Sanaa Alsarghali, Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law, and Director ‎of the Constitutional Studies Center at An-Najah University.‎

The webinar started with a presentation by Dr. Al-Sarghali titled: “Introduction to Constitutions and State of Exception: Main Focus ‎Palestine”. She said:" The question of whether ‘States of Emergency are fast ‎becoming the rule and not ‎an exception in the MENA region during ‎COVID-19’ is pertinent. Thus, we ‎would like to explore in this Webinar if ‎Palestine’s response to COVID-19 ‎demonstrates what Giorgio Agamben ‎calls ‘the State of Exception,’ wherein ‎exceptional laws and powers ‎become normalized.‎‏"‏

Also, the webinar included several presentations, titled: " state of exception ‎and MEANA region", “The Evolution of Constitutionalism and ‎Emergencies in the Arab World”, “Arab constitutional courts in times of ‎emergency”, and “Beyond the COVID-19 Palestinian Internal Emergency ‎Debate: Permanent State of Exception, Multiple Emergency, and the ‎Absent Sovereign” given by Prof. Mabon Prof. Brown, Dr. Biagi, and Prof ‎Khalil respectively.‎

The webinar was attended by lawyers from the Palestinian Bar Association, ‎professors, and current ‎undergraduate students of law from local and ‎international universities who are interested in the webinar.‎

At the end of the webinar, Dr. Al-Sarghali engaged in a question and answer session with the ‎webinar's speakers and ‎participants. It was ‎moderated by Dr. Mona Demaidi, Computer ‎Engineering ‎Assistant Professor at An-Najah National ‎University.‎