Academic and administrative faculty members at Hebrew University sent a letter to the administration in which they criticized the resignation of Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian after she caused an uproar by denying many of the atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists during the October 7 massacre.
"We, members of the academic and administrative faculty at Hebrew University, learned with great sadness from the media about the retirement of our colleague, Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian from Hebrew University after decades of studies, teaching and research," the faculty members wrote.
They claimed that "her resignation followed a nearly year-long campaign of blackmail, which included public letters from the university administration and colleagues who sought to denounce and excommunicate her, publications in the media and even a continuous and humiliating police investigation (including an all-night arrest). Regardless of our positions in this particular case, we see in her resignation and in the moves that led to this action, a mortal blow to Hebrew University and its academic freedom."
The authors of the letter, Prof. Amos Goldberg, Prof. Abigail Jacobson, Prof. Shlomi Segal, Prof. Liat Kozma and Dr. Aynat Rubinstein, added that "the whole time, starting from the beginning of the affair in October, the university management stood by Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian's accusers. And in an unusual move, she was suspended from teaching at the end of the first semester. All this was done without examining her words in depth and while making statements to the media that harmed her, her good name and her personal safety."
According to them, "the media took statements out of context, distorted her words and attributed things to her that she did not say, and the university's statements condemned her in a blatant violation of the accepted rules of criticism within the framework of free academic research. In an academic framework like ours, it is possible to deal with different positions, some of which are critical and shocking and not necessarily pleasant to the ear, to express disagreement if necessary but still maintain every guard for freedom of expression and academic freedom."
They accused the university of engaging in "half-truths and sweeping generalizations" against Shalhoub-Kevorkian and stated that "the painful end of this case is a silent and paralyzing message for all university researchers, not least for Palestinian researchers. As was written in the faculty members' letter to the administration in April, this year she was put on the dock without a defender, and tomorrow it will be each and every one of us."
Shalhoub-Kevorkian caused controversy after she published a petition accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Among other things she said that "Now is the time to abolish Zionism, that is the direction I'm going in today. It can't go on anymore, it can't, it's criminal,” and cast doubt that the acts of rape actually occurred on October 7, saying: "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."