Attorney Pnina Sharvit-Baruch, a colonel in the IDF, on Thursday resumed teaching a course in international law, in the wake of demonstrations for and against Tel Aviv University’s decision to allow her to lecture. The opposition to Sharvit-Baruch stemmed from the fact that she heads the IDF's International Law Department.

According to a report  published by the Hebrew-language newspaper Ha'aretz, Sharvit-Baruch and her legal department's staff gave the stamp of approval to the IDF's operations in Gaza, including the bombing of a Hamas police course graduation ceremony on the first day of Operation 'Cast Lead.'

In the past, Sharvit-Baruch argued that from a strictly legal point of view, Israel is entitled to use artillery against targets in Palestinian Authority urban areas. "If they are launching rockets against us from built-up areas, or building bombs in the basements of apartment buildings, we are within our rights to shell these areas in response," she said.

Several lecturers wrote letters to the Dean of the Law Faculty, Prof. Hanoch Dagan, in which they demanded that Sharvit-Baruch's appointment be canceled. However, the university sided with the demands of other university students who pressed for adherence to the principles of freedom of speech, asking the school to allow Sharvit-Baruch to lecture, as planned.

Newly-installed Knesset Member Tzipi Hotovely (Likud), who is a doctoral student in law, came to the university campus to express her solidarity with Sharvit-Baruch. “I think that the student demonstration in support of Sharvit-Baruch is impressive and important. There is no basis to the claims against her. If a lecturer like her would be unable to teach, then it’s possible that academic institutions should be closed. Zionist aspirations that once were mainstream suddenly need to be defended,” Hotovely said.