Prof. Ali Zeidan AbuZuhri- Arab American University President and Advisor Akram Khatib- the Attorney General of the State of Palestine Signed a collaboration and experience exchange agreement in AAUP- Ramallah Campus.
Dr. Yousef Asfour- the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Prof. Waleed Deeb- the Founding President and the Academic Advisor of the Board of Directors attended the signing of the agreement along with a delegation of Mr. Ashraf Iriqat- the Assistant Attorney General, Mr. Yasir Hamad- the Assistant Attorney General, and Mr. Thair Khalil- the Head of Juvenile Prosecution.
Dr. Yousef Asfour welcomed the guests and emphasized on the importance of the joint collaboration between AAUP and the governmental and private Palestinian organizations. He said that AAUP always seeks to achieve the dreams of the Palestinian society and seeks to serve the community in every possible way. Dr. Asfour also clarified that the university aims to help Palestinians achieve their dreams in getting higher education and said that signing this collaboration agreement is great as the Public Prosecution is a very important institution of the Palestinian State.
Dr. Asfour explained how Arab American University is one of important educational institutions that aims to prepare a well-qualified human cadres and develop them to face life, in addition to the excellent and distinguish knowledge and personal skills that students will gain and will help them compete in the local, Arab and international labor markets.
He added that AAUP seeks to gain the global respect especially for its uniqueness and its quality in the higher education it provides, and thus will gain a world leading place in scientific research and in serving the community in order to achieve sustainable development.
Advisor Akram Khatib expressed his pride in Arab American University and what it provides to the Palestinian community and said that this agreement will raise the abilities of the employees and will support any employee of the Public Prosecution who wishes to continue his higher studies. Mr. Khatib said that this collaboration agreement with Arab American University came as part of the openness of the prosecution to the local civil community and the private sector in Palestine.
Mr. Khatib added that the prosecution is ready to provide the expertise to the organizations in general and to AAUP in specific and that such agreement will enhance and empower the relations between the prosecution and the Palestinian organizations for the benefit of the national goals and values.
Prof. Ali Zeidan AbuZuhri in his turn gave a brief about the establishment of AAUP and its academic role, and said that Arab American University has three main goals which are the Academic Development, the Scientific Research Development and Providing Services to the local community.
Prof. Abu Zuhri said that this agreement is one of the agreements that AAUP always wanted to sign, as part of the agreements that the university has with other private organizations and governmental organizations like ministries. He added that this agreement will benefit the students of AAUP in specific and the local community as well, as the university will grant special scholarships to the employees of the public prosecution and will benefit from the experiences of the officers and workers in the prosecution in training BA and MA students especially in exchanging knowledge in the Law field.
Moreover, Prof. Abu Zuhri said that the university utilizes information technology in addition to the academic education and the training programs aiming to provide its graduates with the qualifications needed to compete in the local, regional and international markets, and said that the university always keeps in developing its buildings and facilities to be part of the international academic arena.
Dr. Rizq Samoudi – the Dean of the Faculty of Law in AAUP said: “we witness today a very important event as this signing came as a result of lots of steps and arrangements”. He added that this signing is out of the beliefs of AAUP to interact with the local community and the Palestinian organizations and the justice organizations as well, and said that the public prosecution is an important part of the justice institutions in Palestine. Dr. Samoudi said that the main purpose of the agreement is to provide scholarships to the prosecution employees who want to join the legal sciences graduate studies, and that he wishes to see future collaboration agreements to benefit from the experiences of the prosecution officers.
The agreement included the joint collaboration between Arab American University and the public prosecution and the emphasize on developing the scientific capabilities of the workers in the prosecution by providing and granting scholarships to them to get their degrees, such as facilitating their joining in the programs and providing some financial discounts.
In addition, both parties agreed on the importance of building a legal clinic in the Faculty of Law in AAUP that aims to raise the legal awareness among all people and enhance the legal culture in the Palestinian community as well as achieving justice and organizing legal community awareness through the students of the Faculty of Law. Also both parties agreed on granting the accepted applicants who are working in the prosecution in the legal sciences masters’ programs some discounts from the credit hour fees according to the regulations of the university. Moreover, it was agreed to train students and give them the chance to join the training programs in the public prosecution brigades to train them how to understand all the legal stuff on real land and to be trained continuously on dealing with the international agreements and the related topics.
Furthermore, it was agreed to dedicate joint jobs related to publications and to organize a comprehensive awareness on the legal aspects, the human rights and children rights, to conduct criminal investigation, constitutional and administrative appeals, in addition to holding joint activities.
