Hebrew U professor to give talk on Israel using Palestinian kids as 'arms laboratories'

The professor will give a talk, "Technologies of Violence at Damascus Gate," in Amsterdam on January 22nd.

By ANNA AHRONHEIM
Updated: JANUARY 8, 2019 17:21
Hebrew University students upset by the incident continued to protest Wednesday afternoon. (photo credit: URI BOLLAG)
Hebrew University students upset by the incident continued to protest Wednesday afternoon.
(photo credit: URI BOLLAG)
Another Hebrew University professor is under fire for her upcoming speech at a lecture later this month in Amsterdam titled “Technologies of Violence at the Damascus Gate.”
Prof. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian is the Lawrence D. Biele Chair in Law at the Faculty of Law-Institute of Criminology and the School of Social Work and Public Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
According to the event description, Shalhoub-Kevorkian will share letters written by east Jerusalem children about the impact of Israel’s security policy against Palestinians in the city.

Photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem

Posted by The Jerusalem Post / JPost.com on Tuesday, January 8, 2019

“Through their letters she will reveal how surveying, imprisoning, torturing and killing can be used as a laboratory for states, arms companies, and security agencies to market their technologies as ‘combat proven,’” read the event description for the conference which will be held on January 22.
“Through the children’s own voices she will highlight the rights of Palestinian children to safety and security and how Israel’s ‘security’ industry uses their life and bodies to sell power/knowledge,” the description continued, adding that “the marking of children’s bodies and lives casts them as disposable others, whose bodies are used to transfer knowledge and to market technologies of violence.”
Hebrew University told The Jerusalem Post that the university didn’t fund the professor’s trip to Amsterdam nor was it involved in her decision to speak there, noting that she “accepted an invitation to speak at the conference on her own time and on her own dime.”
Matan Peleg, CEO of Im Tirtzu called the lecture a “disgrace.”
“It’s a disgrace that Shalhoub-Kevorkian – whose salary is paid for by the Israeli taxpayer – is given free rein to slander Israel and fuel the fires of BDS,” he said.
“It seems that every week there is another instance of anti-Zionism at Hebrew University,” continued Peleg,” which is unfortunately unsurprising given the administration’s allowance for anti-Israel activity to fester on its campus, including inciting protests against the IDF, nixing Hatikvah at graduation ceremonies, and holding biased conferences replete with far-Left speakers.”
“The university must immediately take action against this harmful phenomenon. The writing is on the wall,” added Peleg.
The conference is being organized by the Faculty for Israeli-Palestinian Peace (FFIPP), Gate48 and Palestine Link.
FFIPP describes itself as a group that is “grounded in International Law” and stands “against the concept and process of normalization [with Israel] and acknowledges that there can be no peace without substantive justice.”
Gate48 is a group of Israelis living in the Netherlands “who oppose the occupation of the Palestinian territories and call for its end.” On its website the group stresses that those who criticize Israeli policy are justified, since it “is not the same a being anti-Israel.”
Palestine Link describes itself as providing “first hand knowledge in socio-economic, historical, cultural and political developments in Palestine and in the region, as well as the Dutch and European foreign policy on the Middle East.”
The same faculty is facing sharp criticism after another professor was reportedly filmed reprimanding a female IDF soldier for wearing her uniform to class.
According to reports by Hebrew-language media, Carola Hilfrich, of the General and Comparative Literature Department, was caught on video scolding the student.
Hilfrich was heard saying “You can’t be naive and be here in uniform and ask to be treated as a civilian,” with the student responding, “I serve and defend the country. Does it disturb anyone that I sit in class in my uniform?”
However, a report by Haaretz said that the student initiated the said discussion with Hilfrich, and no argument had actually taken place between the two during the class.
On Tuesday, some 200 people demonstrated at the university in favor of Hilfrich who, due to receiving threats against her life, has stopped teaching following the incident.
Last week a demonstration organized by the right-wing NGO Im Tirtzu saw dozens of students protesting in favor of the student, with placards reading “Enough moral deterioration,” and “Enough surrendering our values.”