A strongly-worded outburst during the Hevron eviction has led for calls to fire a veteran Bar Ilan University Professor. Activists want to know if PM Olmert’s daughter should also be fired.

Professor Hillel Weiss, who teaches Jewish literature at Bar-Ilan University, was present at last week’s eviction of two Jewish families from Hevron’s Shalhevet neighborhood. A cameraman witnessed a private exchange the professor had with the Hevron Brigade Commander Yehuda Fuchs, and asked the professor what they spoke about. "I said I hoped his mother will be bereaved, his wife will be a widow and his children orphans,” Weiss responded.

The reporter, employed by Ynet, distributed the video to all of Israel’s news channels.

Bar Ilan University President Moshe Kaveh publicly condemned Weiss on Thursday, calling the statements “horrific” and deserving of “public denunciation.” He said the university was looking into putting Prof. Weiss on trial in an internal tribunal. “The university views his actions very gravely, and demands he take responsibility for them."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak weighed in with a public call to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz requesting legal action be taken against the professor. He then called upon Kaveh to fire Prof. Weiss unless he recanted.

Judea and Samaria Police opened a criminal investigation against Weiss that same day for incitement.

But some have been very critical of the response to Prof. Weiss’s words. “Ehud Barak's sudden interest in academic extremism in Israel would be much more convincing if he had ever spoken out about the trashing of academic standards in Israeli universities in order to hire and promote leftist traitors and seditious post-Zionists working for Israel's destruction,” wrote Haifa University activist Professor Steven Plaut. “What about those Israeli leftist professors who not only curse police and soldiers but regularly attack them violently at ‘anarchist’ demonstrations.  Prof. Anat Matar from Tel Aviv University, to name but one, has been arrested for assaulting police.  Why does Barak have nothing to say about that?”

Weiss himself appeared on TV claiming that “cursing is within the framework of free speech. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef and soccer fans both act in the same way…The police and army would be better off taking a look at their recent actions instead of investigating me.”

Prof. Weiss made the statements while watching his daughter, son-in-law and their six kids be forcibly evicted from their home in Hevron’s old marketplace.

Good For the Gander?

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s daughter Dana was seen on national television last year calling IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz a “murderer,” taking part in a protest with signs reading ‘the Intifada shall prevail’ and engaging in chants about “how many children Halutz has murdered today” outside the army chief’s Tel Aviv home.

Another Olmert child, Shaul, now living abroad, signed a public petition calling on IDF soldiers to refuse orders to serve in Judea or Samaria.

No legal action was taken against either of the young Olmerts, nor did the leading papers or top political brass call for either of their prosecution. Dana Olmert continues to teach Hebrew Literature at Hebrew University, where she received no disciplinary hearing.

Actual Incitement to Kill

The Land of Israel Legal Forum and Tadmit, a group whose name is an acronym for “Strengthen Democracy in Israeli Media,” have filed a complaint against Channel Two’s Yaron London for statements he made in an interview earlier in the week.  In an interview with MK Aryeh Eldad (NU/NRP) and retired IDF Major-General Yaakov Amidror, London denounced “every settler who allows himself to live on stolen hills of stolen Arab land, and you need 3,000 men to clear out two families.”  “What do you think of giving one company permission to open fire?” London asked.

When Eldad asked for a clarification, London explained that he was asking about “bringing back the spirit of Altalena”—the Irgun weapons ship that was attacked by the Haganah in 1948.

Tadmit activist Hani Luz explained in an official letter of complaint that due to London’s considerable experience, he should be expected to act more responsibly.  His words could be used by a viewer as an excuse to open fire on their political opponents, she said.