Pro-Israel protest (illustration)
Pro-Israel protest (illustration)Tomer Neuberg/Flash 90

Dvir Kali, a student at the Sapir Academic College in the northwestern Negev near Sderot, decided to take action on a controversial art display at the school - he tore up a hamsa palm-shaped Jewish amulet with "slaughter the Jew" in Arabic written on it in Hebrew letters.

"I did not steal the inciting display," Dvir Kali wrote on Facebook afterwards. "I definitely took it off the wall with contempt, I definitely tore it into small pieces, and I am certainly satisfied with the act of stopping public incitement against the Jewish people."

Kali, a married father of one and resident of Moshav Yakhini near Gaza, studies public policy and administration at the college and served for five years as a naval commando.

"I acted as I was taught and as I know: that protecting the nation doesn't end when one is discharged from the military," wrote Kali. He added "it is important to me to say that I do not hate Arabs."

Just before he removed the offensive display, Kali noted that he saw three female students who saw the hamsa and started crying at the message calling for the murder of Jews, at which they left the exhibit.

"I couldn't believe that in front of me are Jews in Israel, at an academic institution supported by the state, walking debased toward an inciting inscription, violence and murder in front of them," Kali wrote. "And there was no reaction, no heroism, nothing like a clear and firm stand that this doesn't happen here."

The lack of an official reaction to the offensive display led Kali to take a step of his own.

Artist Gal Volinez who created the offensive exhibit wrote "Dvir's actions undermined its purpose. He turned the hamsa into an icon and himself into a criminal. ...Dvir proves that a hamsa made of fimo inscribed with racist foolishness can drive a naval commando out of his mind."

Volinez's hamsa displays, in addition to calling for "slaughter the Jews," also read "in blood and fire we will redeem Palestine" and "Daesh," the Arabic abbreviation of Islamic State (ISIS).

Former Im Tirzu head Dr. Ronen Shoval complained against Sapir College via the police, saying "it does not make sense that an Israeli college, funded by taxpayers' dollars, should hold an exhibition featuring incitement to murder Jews." 

"It is ridiculous that the freedom of expression by the extreme left gets broad legitimacy, while the national camp suffers from being shut up. It's completely out of line," he said.  

"I demand that Sapir immediately remove the exhibition," Shoval stated. "Also I call on the police to investigate the curator of the exhibition on suspicion of incitement to murder Jews." 

In response, Sapir College wrote in a statement "free speech and free thought exist at Sapir Academic College in an effort to foster pluralism and tolerance. We expose to the faculty and students a variety of public opinions as part of their education."