It's such a pleasure to be able to host Dr. Ahd Othman, winner of the British Academy 2025 Visiting Fellowship, for her to conduct her project, entitled The 'Peel Report' in Arabic translation: British accounts of Arab Gulf responses to the White Papers on Palestine (1937-1939).

This project investigates British government attempts to identify and manage the reactions of Arab Gulf rulers and populations to a series of British reports and policy papers on Mandatory Palestine (1920-1948). The study conducts, for the first time, a close textual analysis of digitised and freely accessible archival records held at the British Library. These Arabic/English bilingual and translated reports and letters, including correspondence between British representatives in the Gulf, discuss the responses of Gulf rulers to the ‘Peel Report’ (1937) and the ‘White Papers on Palestine’ (1937-1939). Continuing to shape the Arab region to this day, these documents set political and legal precedents around national rights, legitimacy and self-determination. By focusing on both Arabic and English texts, the study also seeks to determine the role of translation in the British government’s efforts to mitigate potential tensions and threats arising in the Arab Gulf owing to divergent stances on Palestine.

More about Ahd's visit at Queen's please see her LinkedIn post. Details about her fellowship with the British Academy please check here. Congratulations to Ahd again and hope you have had a memorable stay at Queen's!

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Ahd Othman (ahd.shaker@gmail.com)