Israel police contest court decision to release Palestinian academic on 'incitement' charges

Israeli police have defied a magistrate court’s rulings regarding the release of Palestinian Professor Nadera Shalhoub, who was arrested on Thursday on charges of “incitement”, Anadolu Agency reports.

Shalhoub appeared before the court in East Jerusalem after Israeli police requested a seven-day extension of her detention.

“Following a session where the defence team of Shalhoub investigated the police representative, the judge decided to release her on the condition of 10,000 shekels ($2,640) bail and a third-party bail in the same amount,” the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel said in a statement.

However, the Israeli police requested a freeze on the execution of the decision as a prelude to appealing it later Friday.

The Centre noted that the police informed the magistrate judge to appeal to the Central Court against the decision. Therefore, the execution of the decision will be suspended, and Shalhoub will not be released until a session is held in the Central Court to consider the police request for an extension of detention pending investigation.

READ: Palestinian professor suspended from Hebrew University for advocating abolition of Zionism

The date for the session has not been determined.

The police arrested, on Thursday, Professor Shalhoub, a lecturer at the Hebrew University, on charges of “incitement” after she accused Israel of committing “genocidal crimes” in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Channel 12 reported.

Shalhoub doubted Israeli claims of “sexual assaults” during a Hamas’s 7 October attack, a claim repeatedly denied by the Movement, according to the Channel.

Following the publication of a petition accusing Israel of perpetrating genocide in Gaza, the lecturer faced suspension from the university, according to Yedioth Ahronoth daily.

“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,” the daily cited a petition by Shalhoub.

Shalhoub teaches in the departments of Criminology and Social Work at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and lectures on Law and Women’s Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Born in 1960, she resides in East Jerusalem.

READ: 120 academics condemn Israel’s arrest of Palestinian professor opposed to genocide