Mada al-Carmel - Arab Center for Applied Social Research condemns the arbitrary action taken by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem to suspend Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian from her teaching position at the university in the departments of criminology and social work. The incitement campaign against her started in October 2023 after she signed a petition denouncing the genocidal war on the Gaza, calling for a ceasefire, and demanding protection for children and their rights. She signed the petition alongside over 2,000 scholars, researchers and university students from around the world.
Furthermore, Mada al-Carmel holds the administration of the Hebrew University responsible for the incitement and threats to which Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian has been subjected to since October 2023, when the university’s president and rector sent her a strongly-worded letter in which they requested that she resign from her post for signing the petition. The letter was not sent to her personally, but on a public email list that includes other university employees, in what amounts to a breach of protocol and institutional practice that exposed her to direct harm, given the surrounding context of incitement and militarization.
Mada al-Carmel recognizes with a great esteem the role that Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian plays as a Palestinian, Arab and global academic figure; a role that has been defined by her noble human values. Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian is currently a member of Mada al-Carmel’s Board of Directors, and is a former Chairperson of the Board. We also value the pioneering role she has played in fostering Palestinian research through her groundbreaking projects in numerous fields of expertise, the support she has provided to Palestinian students through various research projects, and in enriching libraries with dozens of her published books and other works that have decolonized knowledge, all of which center on questions of freedom, justice and human rights. In addition to all that, we recognize the administrative contribution she has made to a number of research institutes, including Mada al-Carmel.
The Board of Directors and staff of Mada al-Carmel consider the arbitrary action that the administration of the Hebrew University has taken against Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian, in suspending her from her teaching position at the university, to be part of the systematic policy of silencing and oppression deployed by the various arms of the Israeli State and its allies around the world – including universities, research centers and academic journals – targeting voices that speak up against the genocidal war, starvation and displacement of the people of Gaza, with thousands in Palestine and around the world being affected.
Mada al-Carmel reiterates its unwavering support for Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, and her freedom of research, thought, expression and occupation. It calls on all relevant stake-holders to exert pressure on the Hebrew University to retract the arbitrary action it has taken against her, which gravely violates her intellectual, academic and employment rights and freedoms.
Mada al-Carmel calls on active academic, cultural and political organizations and individuals within the Green Line to coordinate their efforts and take collective action to ensure the safety of students, researchers and lecturers working in Israeli academic and research institutions, who experience oppression and arbitrary punitive measures on the grounds of their political and humanitarian positions against the war on Gaza, and in opposition to colonial policies throughout Palestine.
