Waving the flag on Jerusalem Day: Bandits?
Waving the flag on Jerusalem Day: Bandits?Israel news photo: Flash 90

A senior Ben Gurion U. professor urges people to “break the necks of right-wing scoundrels,” but the university blocked protests on its website.

Chemistry Professor Eyal Nir wrote on his Facebook page, "I call on the world to come and help break these scoundrels' necks," and he described right-wing, Israeli flag-bearing marchers on Jerusalem Day as "gangs of bandits swarming in our country.”

He was outraged at Israelis who waved Israeli flags in the Jewish-Arab neighborhood Shimon Hatzaddik (Sheik Jarrah) in Jerusalem. "During the Jerusalem Day march, a gang of a few dozen bullies walked through the city's Arab streets calling death to Arabs, death to leftists, [and] burn their villages," he wrote.

Prof. Nir justified his remarks by arguing that “the response of any reasonable, peaceful and just individual should be that they [nationalists] must be prevented from acting out their threats such as in terrorist activities dubbed 'price tag.’” The `price tag` motto is that of a small group who claim they will see to it that Arabs pay an immediate price for anti-Jewish activity by taking the law into their own hands, as Professor Nir would like the world to do against Jews, but have yet to be caught acting on that premise.

The university’s spokesperson said there is no connection between the professor’s political views and those of Ben Gurion. After the My Israel movement began a Facebook campaign on the university website against its stand and Prof. Nir’s statements, Ben Gurion University blocked the website. An official suggested that if anyone has complaints, he should go to the police.

National Union Knesset Member Dr. Michael Ben-Ari appealed to government prosecutor Shai Nitzan to launch an investigation into the remarks of Prof. Nir, who is also a leftist activist.

“It is known that the prosecutor practices discrimination and treats leftist inciters with silk gloves, but this incident crosses a red line that cannot be ignored," the MK wrote Nitzan. “If a right-wing activist had called to break the necks of leftists or of government prosecutors, there is no doubt than he would forget what daylight looks like” after the government arrested him.

My Israel chairwoman Ayelet Shaked noted that Ben Gurion University previously has dismissed a lecturer  who expressed opposition against homosexuals and lesbians, but ”when a leftist lecturer incites murder of people on the right, the university denies any responsibility for his remarks.”