IsraCampus.Org.il

Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian is currently a lecturer in law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Institute of Criminology. She also holds a teaching position at the Hebrew University School of Social Work. She received a B.A. degree in Political Science from Haifa University (1980) and another in Social Work from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1982). She was awarded a Masters degree in 1989 and a Ph.D. in 1994, both in Criminology, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. From 1985 through 1994 she served as an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Bethlehem University, and from 1991 through 1994 she was an Instructor of Criminology at the Hebrew University. Shalhoub-Kevorkian was a Visiting Scholar at USC from 1995-1996 in their Center for Multi-Ethnic and Transnational Studies and their Center for Feminist Studies and a visiting professor at UCLA School of Law. She has conducted research in the area of domestic violence for many years and has published extensively in the field of women's rights.

At first view, Shalhoub-Kevorkian would seem to be a prime example of equal rights for Israeli Arab citizens within Israel, particularly women. This woman is a product of education from at least two Israeli universities (and how much Israeli taxpayer assistance did she receive to do so?) and now lectures on the consistent problem worldwide of violence against women, not only in Israel, but abroad. The greatest proportion of such violence and oppression is in Arab Muslim states. One would expect her to perhaps have some gratitude for her country-of-residence, Israel, at least some minor appreciation, but as in many other aspects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ms. Shalhoub-Kevorkian lets Arab tribalism trump everything.

Hebrew University, where Ms. Shalhoub-Kevorkian teaches, and particularly its social work department, recently came out with a study that faulted Israeli soldiers for not raping Palestinian women as an indication that IDF soldiers felt such women were inferior. That was the best the academics at Hebrew U. could do to salvage such a blood libel report which proved false since no such rapes could be found. Not to miss the bandwagon, Ms. Shalhoub-Kevorkian advanced this blood libel against IDF soldiers by claiming they molest Palestinian girls at checkpoints as a matter of course and even rape them (still unproven with not one rape chronicled). The kicker is that as an academic and a feminist, she says is opposed to Arab honor killings.

So how does this Arab-Israeli academic lay blame on Israel for that peculiar Arab tribal institution of honor killings? Well, Shalhoub-Kevorkian hit upon the idea that Israeli soldiers are raping these Arab girls who are then murdered by their families to preserve family honor because of the imaginary rapes by Israeli soldiers.

Do you follow the tribalism here? As a women's rights expert, Shalhoub-Kevorkian opposes honor killings, but if it weren't for those nasty Israelis, this practice would not take place among the Arab population, hence, it's the "occupation" that causes this to happen. This would no doubt have been discussed at a conference she wanted to attend in Tunisia, but she never made the trip, having put up such a fuss at Ben Gurion over the security procedures that she missed her flight. However, such suggestions of Israeli culpability are not limited to the academic conferences of the totalitarian Arab states; Shalhoub-Kevorkian has also expressed similar ideas to students at USC and UCLA.

The fact that the Hebrew U, rape study showed that Israeli soldiers do not bother Palestinian women does not deter one bit Ms. Shalhoub-Kevorkian from repeating standard Arab propaganda buzz words and libel about Israel's Jews and the Arabs. In other words, Arabs are "humiliated" when they go through checkpoints that are set up by the Israeli government with an "apartheid wall" to protect not only Israeli Jews, but even Israeli Arabs (like Ms. Shalhoub-Kevorkian) from terrorists and suicide bombers. She also is teaching UCLA law students about the "legality" of "home demolitions" which are usually done to prevent terrorist cells and bomb making factories from operating. She doesn't discuss the illegality of what the Palestinians like to rephrase as the word "terrorism," that is, "legitimate resistance."

I recently read through an account of Ms. Shalhoub-Kevorkian's experience as she was planning to fly from Israel to Tunisia for the women's study conference. Of particular interest was my reading of how she was "humiliated" (there's that word again, Arabs are always being "humiliated" by security checks to stop them from blowing up Israelis) by being told to remove her shoes to be x-rayed before boarding her airplane. She regales her audiences abroad of such humiliation by the big mean Israelis.

I recently flew from Oakland to that terrorist stronghold of Las Vegas, Nevada and was made to remove my shoes to be x-rayed also. The funny thing is, I didn't feel humiliated one bit in being told to do so because the next guy might have explosives in his shoes. The fact this is even more likely on a flight from Israel to a hostile country like Tunisia makes Shalhoub-Kevorkian's "humiliation" all the more laughable. As an American Jew visiting Israel I've also had my luggage searched on arriving and leaving, so her claims that only Arabs are forced to go through such procedures at Ben Gurion Airport just aren't true. Her accusations of racial profiling are also not completely true. Members of the ISM routinely are trained in how to lie to Israeli border guards to get into the country to aid Palestinian terrorist groups. Ms. Shalhoub-Kevorkian speaks frequently in support of ISM anti-Israel activities abroad and has even been featured in the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs journal that is a Washington front group funded by Saudi Arabia that rubs elbows with all manner of the ISM, neo-Nazis and other anti-Semitic and anti-Israel groups. She would certainly bear some scrutiny in my book.

What many people also do not know, is that the ISM has begun under PLO supervision a campaign to challenge Israeli security procedures at Ben Gurion as they have done all the long at checkpoints in the West Bank and near Gaza. What a coincidence that Ms. Shalhoub-Kevorkian chose to make such an angry demonstration at the same time, since this campaign is also being waged by the Association of Civil Rights in Israel that works closely with ISM groups and is funded by the New Israel Fund, whose leader. Larry Garber is a former US state department official and gets some funding from the EU. NIF supports all manner of ISM related groups like ICHAD, Sabeel and others whose goal is the dissolution of the Jewish state. NIF continues to use "civil society" grants to support groups including Adalah, Mossawa, the Arab Human Rights Association (HRA), Hamoked, and others that also lead the campaign to end Israel as a Jewish State, and promote "apartheid" rhetoric, boycotts and sanctions (like Ms. Shalhoub-Kevorkian). Similarly, NIF provided funding for Jeff Halper -- a fringe Israeli who accompanies Naim Ateek, the leader of the radical Palestinian group known as Sabeel, at conferences promoting the one-state solution and boycotts.

I've taken a course in El Al's security procedures and was surprised to learn that screeners do not profile people solely by race, but by occupation and demeanor as well. A Muslim academic is more likely to be screened than an Arab farmer from the Galilee. There are many reasons security people search certain individuals and Ms. Shalhoub-Kevorkian's open hostility to being searched was a red flag regardless of who she thinks she is.

Speaking at UCLA on a symposium at the Center for the Study of Women and the Law School for women, Shalhoub-Kevorkian has even found a way to blame the Israel for patriarchal oppression of women in the Palestinian Authority. The Security Fence, set up only because the Palestinian Arab leadership chooses to not arrest terrorists or stop terrorism against Israeli citizens, she lectures is an "apartheid wall" and, according to Shalhoub-Kevorkian, "Fathers are humiliated to stand by helplessly as their daughters are searched at checkpoints. So they keep their daughters at home to avoid the searches, and they force them to marry early."

So, there you have it! Centuries of Arab tribal customs against women (that Shalhoub-Kevorkian objects to as a feminist) can be blamed on the Israeli Security Fence that doesn't keep out terrorists (as it has conclusively been shown to do), but is the cause for the subjugation of women by their Arab fathers and their early marriages down through the centuries. Wow, this woman must be really, really smart!

What comfort to know the Israeli educational system produced this virago to go abroad to American universities and smear Israel once again as a Jewish state that should be dismantled as part of her twisted interpretation of "human rights." That, itself, is a crime that should be worthy of study by the Criminology Department at the Faculty of Law & School of Social Work at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, where she is employed with a nice sinecure, thanks at least in part to the Israeli taxpayer. Even Golda Meir must be rolling in her grave that this woman was granted a fellowship in her name in the year 2000.

========================================

Op-Ed articles appearing on IsraCampus.Org.il are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the opinion of IsraCampus.Org.il