Prof Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian was detained by police on the afternoon of 18 April over comments made on a podcast more than a month earlier and held overnight in conditions her lawyers described as \u201cterrible\u201d and designed to humiliate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis case is unique,\u201d said Hassan Jabareen, her lawyer and the director of the human rights organisation Adalah. \u201cThis is not only about one professor, it could be a [precedent] for any academic who goes against the consensus in wartime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shalhoub-Kevorkian was released on bail the next day when a magistrate and a district court judge both ruled she did not pose a threat, but has been called for further questioning on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although there have been widespread detentions of Palestinian citizens of Israel who publicly criticised the war in Gaza, this is the first time an academic has been targeted over speech related to their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shalhoub-Kevorkian is a leading feminist scholar whose work focuses on trauma, state crimes, genocide, gender violence and surveillance. She is the Lawrence D Biele chair in law at Hebrew University and the global chair in law at Queen Mary University of London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All prosecutions relating to freedom of speech have to be approved by the attorney general\u2019s office, so her detention was signed off at the heart of government. Police said they were investigating Shalhoub-Kevorkian on suspicion of incitement to terrorism, violence and racism over comments on a podcast published in early March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jabareen said: \u201cThey could have asked her to come to the police station for two or three hours to discuss, investigate. To carry out the arrest like that, as if she was a dangerous person, shows the main purpose was to humiliate her. It was illegal, that\u2019s why the magistrates court accepted my argument that she should be released and the district court confirmed it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Police had immediately appealed against the decision of the first court, so there were two hearings about Shalhoub-Kevorkian\u2019s release in quick succession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When police arrested her, they confiscated books and posters from her home and during interrogation she was questioned extensively about her academic work, including articles published years ago, Jabareen said. Academic writing has special legal protections in Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who is in her 60s, was strip-searched, handcuffed so tightly it caused pain, denied access to food, water and medication for several hours, and held in a cold cell without adequate clothing or blankets. Conditions in Israeli prisons have deteriorated since the start of the war and Shalhoub-Kevorkian is concerned about her health if she is detained again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 100 faculty members from Hebrew University published an open letter backing Shalhoub-Kevorkian and criticised the university for not supporting her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRegardless of the content of Nadera\u2019s words, their interpretation and the opinions she expressed, it is clear to everyone that this is a political arrest, the whole purpose of which is to gag mouths and limit freedom of expression,\u201d the letter was quoted in the newspaper Haaretz<\/a> as saying. \u201cToday it is Nadera who stands on the bench, and tomorrow it is each and every one of us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her lawyers and international academics have condemned Hebrew University for fuelling months of political attacks on one of their faculty in the run-up to her detention. The rector called on her to resign in late 2023 after she signed a letter calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and describing Israel\u2019s campaign as genocide, and she was briefly suspended over the podcast cited in her interrogation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite that history, her arrest set such a damaging precedent that it drew public condemnation from the university. \u201cWe strongly object to many of the things that Prof Shalhoub-Kevorkian said. Nonetheless, as a democratic country, there is no place to arrest a person for such remarks, however infuriating they may be,\u201d it stated, according to Haaretz<\/a>. The university did not respond to questions from the Guardian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Queen Mary University of London has not condemned the arrest. A spokesperson said the university was \u201cfollowing the events surrounding Prof Shalhoub-Kevorkian \u2026 and remains concerned about her wellbeing\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 250 academics at Queen Mary have published an open letter in support of their colleague and calling on the university to stand by her. \u201cAcademic freedom [in Israel] has come under sustained attack,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shalhoub-Kevorkian\u2019s arrest comes against a backdrop of political persecution of critics of the country\u2019s war in Gaza. Hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel have been arrested<\/a> and jailed, or lost jobs or access to education, because of social media posts<\/a> or comments condemning the military campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Nadera](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/8b1dee52f0a7b511c87ec0bbea79428f02a00451\/0_0_5616_3744\/master\/5616.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none\")
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