Israel
Jerusalem university reinstates professor who denied October 7 atrocities
Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian was suspended after saying the Israeli government was lying about sexual assaults on October 7
March 28, 2024 12:31
Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian was suspended after saying the Israeli government was lying about sexual assaults on October 7
March 28, 2024 12:31(JNS) The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has reinstated a law professor who called into question the rapes of women and the other atrocities during the October 7 Hamas massacre, the school said on Wednesday.
Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, an Israeli-Arab and American citizen, also termed Israel’s war against the Islamist terrorist group “genocide.”
Shalhoub-Kevorkian also called the “Zionist entity,” “criminal” and a “killing machine” and said that Israel lied about terrorists committing rapes on October 7.
In an interview with Israel’s Channel 14, Shalhoub-Kevorkian said: “It’s time to abolish Zionism. It can’t continue, it’s criminal. Only by abolishing Zionism can we continue.”
She added, “They will use any lie. They started with babies, they continued with rape, and they will continue with a million other lies. We stopped believing them, I hope the world stops believing them.”
Shalhoub-Kevorkian describes herself as an expert on “the crime of femicide and other forms of gendered-based violence and violence against children in conflict-ridden areas.”
In an earlier letter announcing her suspension, titled “Incitement and hatred led by Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian,” the university wrote that it rejected “all of her distorted statements with disgust.”
“Since the beginning of the war, Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian has been speaking out in a disgraceful, anti-Zionist and inflammatory manner. At the beginning of the war, the lecturer signed a petition calling Israel’s actions in Gaza genocide, and [the state] an occupying entity since 1948,” the letter reads.
The university said at the time that it was sorry she was a faculty member and asked her to consider resigning from her position.
The university suspended her on March 12 for her inflammatory remarks, pending a retraction.
Her rector, Asher Ben-Arieh said he rejected the idea that Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s suspension was political, saying that the issue was her denial of civilian violence, which he said stood “in complete contrast to the values of the social work profession, which require us all to stand by the victims.”
The decision to allow her to resume teaching was taken following a meeting with the rector of the university, Professor Tamir Sheafer, in which Shalhoub-Kevorkian claimed that “as a critical feminist researcher she believes all victims and does not doubt their words, and that she does not deny the fact that on October 7 there were cases of rape in the south [of Israel],” the school said in a statement.
According to Haaretz, she was not asked to retract her claim that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
“Sheafer stressed that the Hebrew University strongly condemns inciting words and threats against students, lecturers, individuals and groups, and calls on all members of the university community to maintain a safe and respectful study and research environment,”
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