Main content

Alert message

Wattad 1Mohammed Wattad (LL.B., LL.M., JSD) is an Associate Professor and the Dean of Law at Zefat Academic College; Senior Researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel-Aviv University; and Research Fellow at the Minerva Center for the Rule of Law under Extreme Conditions at Haifa University. In addition, he serves as an Adjunct Professor at several law schools in Israel and abroad. In 2014-2016, he served as a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of California at Irvine, both at the Department of Political Science and the School of Law.
Prof. Wattad is a legal scholar specializing in international and comparative criminal law, comparative constitutional law, international law, the laws of war, the laws on torture, the laws on terrorism, Professional Ethics, Medical Law, and the interaction between law and political science, particularly regarding the independence of the judiciary, the rule of law, and other issues concerning the Arab minority citizens of Israel.
Prof. Wattad is a Haifa University School of Law graduate, including studies as an exchange student at Oxford University (a comparative and international law program). Additionally, he accomplished higher academic education in Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Columbia University in the USA, the Munk Center of Global Affairs & Public Policy and the Toronto University in Canada, the Max Planck Institute in Germany, and the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences in Italy. In all academic institutions Wattad attended, he graduated with distinction and was included in the Dean's List. During his studies, Prof. Wattad has received several prizes of excellence and other prestigious fellowships, inter alia, Fulbright Fellowship, Halbert Fellowship, Minerva Fellowship, Humboldt Fellowship, and the Maof Prize granted for Excellent Israeli Arab Academic Scholars by Israel's Council for Higher Education.
He is 2020 winner of the prestigious Zeltner Young Scholar Award; the 2015 winner of the prestigious Young Scholar Award on Israel Studies; the 2007 and the 2008 winner of the Best Legal Oralist Award of the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Sciences; and the 2014 and the 2018 winner of the Excellent Lecturer Award of Zefat Academic College.
Between 2003-2004, he served as a legal clerk at the Supreme Court of Israel under the supervision of Justice Dalia Dorner. Between 2010-2015 he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal 'Medicine and Law'. Between 2018-2021, he served as Research Fellow at the International Center for Health, Law, and Ethics at Haifa University. Since 2009, he serves as a member of the General Assembly and the Presidential Board of Israel Press Council. Since 2020 he serves as a member of the Israeli Institute for Press and Media Board of Governance.
Prof. Wattad is highly involved in professional ethics activity; inter alia, he serves as Vice President of the Bar Disciplinary Tribunal of the Northern District in Israel; the Head of the Ethics Forum in Rotary Israel; and member at the Ethics Tribunal of Israel Press Council.
Additionally, Prof. Wattad has expertise in the history of Israel and issues of self-image and identity in multicultural societies. He has written and spoken worldwide extensively on societal and political challenges confronting the Middle East and Israel, including the relations between Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens and Israel’s external relations with surrounding Arab states.
Furthermore, Prof. Wattad served, and so remains, in many important public and professional positions, leading among others, a member at the Public Committee for Recommending Nominees for the Position of the Knesset’s Legal Advisor member at the Bar Examination Committee.
Besides, Prof. Wattad is devoted to volunteering activities in the community and the society, among other things, as a Rotarian since 2008. In 2020-2021, he served as the President of the Stella Maris-Haifa Rotary Club. In addition, Prof. Wattad is the recipient of the prestigious Paul Harris Award, by the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, in appreciation of tangible and significant assistance given for the furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among people of the world.