I write to you as signatories of the statement Childhood researchers and students call for immediate ceasefire in Gaza with an urgent update about our esteemed colleague, Palestinian scholar and activist Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, and a call for action.
As many of you will have heard, Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian was arrested by the Israeli police on 18th April 2024. She was arrested under suspicion of incitement to terrorism and violence because of her unflinching stand against the genocide in Gaza and her insightful analysis of Israeli settler-colonialism and racialised violence. Her arrest follows on from an ongoing campaign of harassment, including the horrific letter demanding that she resign from Hebrew University Jerusalem for signing our ceasefire statement (October 2023), her detainment and questioning at the airport upon returning to Israel (22nd March 2024), and her subsequent suspension and reinstatement by the university in Spring 2024.
Fortunately, Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian was released from prison on 19th April 2024. However, we note that:
According to her family, while Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian was incarcerated her hands and feet were shackled, she was put in urine-infested and cockroach-infested spaces, yelled at, and intimidated during several hours of interrogation. She was not able to sleep and was denied her essential medications.
Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s house was searched. Police took her laptop and smart phone, in addition to some of the papers she was working on, and a collection of poetry books and scripts by the poet Mahmoud Darwish.
While in custody, she was asked repeatedly about her academic publications and her interview on the podcast “Makdisi Street.”
Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian has been released from prison because the court did not find sufficient evidence to justify her immediate arrest or the continuation of her detention. However, judges at both the Magistrate Court and the District Court (Court of Appeal) maintained that Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian's scholarly work and statements could potentially amount to incitement.
A 12TV programme today in Israel (20th April 2024) slanders her scholarship, claiming that the Palestinian children she interviewed for her research are terrorists. Hebrew University Jerusalem (HUJ) responded to the programme by further discrediting her research and stressing that they reject her scholarship.
While HUJ reversed their decision to suspend Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian and issued a statement against her arrest, they have failed to remove their social media post about her suspension, and they have neither acknowledged nor apologized for their role in inciting against her (e.g., the public release of the letters demanding her resignation and about her suspension, as well as the ongoing public condemnation of her scholarly work.)
In short, Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian remains in significant danger. Her treatment exemplifies a systematic pattern of educide against Palestinian scholars and places of education. What’s more, the fact that an internationally renowned scholar is being detained and persecuted in this manner serves to produce a chilling effect on academic freedom and solidarity with Palestine.
Many of you have been asking what we can do in support of Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian and to amplify our calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Some URGENT actions include:
Signing the petition: https://www.change.org/freenadera
Writing to Asher Cohen, President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (asher.cohen@mail.huji.ac.il); Tamir Sheafer, Rector (tamir.sheafer@mail.huji.ac.il); and Asher Ben-Arieh, Dean of the School of Social Work (benarieh@mail.huji.ac.il). In your letter, you could demand that they apologise for the harm they have caused Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian and to use their influence to clear her name and to prevent the Israeli media from further inciting against her.
Cutting all ties and cease all collaborations and joint projects of any kind with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem—until it ends its decades-long complicity in Israeli occupation and system of apartheid, retracts its letters and statements against Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian, issues a detailed apology, asserts the significance of academic freedom, and stresses its commitment to protect all the faculty, staff, and students at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, including the many Palestinians who work and study on its campuses.
Contacting your faculty bodies, academic associations, unions, and government representatives and demanding that they (1) call for Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s protection and prevention of further harassment and abuse; and (2) protect the academic freedom of Palestinian scholars, students, and those speaking out.
Creating a social media storm by circulating the petition and calling for the immediate protection and prevention of further harassment and abuse of Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian; use the hashtag #FreeNadera and tag @HebrewU.
Applying pressure on the Israeli government and HUJ by reaching out to your local media outlets and sharing Prof. Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s case.
In solidarity,
Rachel
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Rachel Rosen
Professor of Sociology
UCL Social Research Institute
Letters for Palestinian childhoods
Israel’s war on Gaza and the violation of children’s rights
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