The Hebrew University in Jerusalem suspended Law Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, after a series of inflammatory statements she made regarding the ongoing Gaza war, the university announced Tuesday.
Shalhoub-Kevorkian was suspended from her teaching functions in order to "preserve the safe climate for the students on the campus," the university wrote in a statement.
"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 an occupying entity since 1948," the university explained.
"In response, the university administration sent an unusually serious letter … in which it was written that they regret that Shalhoub-Kevorkian is part of the university and suggested that she consider leaving her position."
"Shalhoub-Kevorkian did not respond to the request, and continues to enjoy the reputation of our magnificent institution, while embarrassing us at the Israeli and international level. Her statements take freedom of expression and academic freedom to the extreme and use it cynically, to the point of incitement," the statement read.
The unprecedented step followed an interview Shalhoub-Kevorkian gave to Channel 14 News on Monday.
The law professor argued that Zionism should be ended and raised doubts about reports of rapes and other Hamas atrocities on Oct. 7.
She continued by saying that while Israelis act afraid when hearing her talk in Arabic on the phone, it is them who "should be scared because criminals are always scared … it's time to abolish Zionism. It can't continue, it's criminal. Only by abolishing Zionism can we continue."
"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," she added.
Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who identifies as a Palestinian, is a known anti-Israeli activist in academic circles. Shortly after Israel's ground invasion into the Gaza Strip began at the end of last October, she signed an open letter accusing Israel of genocide, Times of Israel reported.
The letter was signed by over 1,000 academics around the world and demanded "the immediate cessation of the Western-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza and the egregious violation of Palestinian children's rights."
Republished with permission from All Israel News.