A group of professors and lecturers from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design penned a letter to Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit expressing their complete support for their students at the Bezalel Academy Thursday, Channel 2 reported
Dozens of students had protested against the investigation of one of their classmates for hanging a poster depicting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with a noose.
The letter read: "We, professors and lecturers from the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, protest this attack on academic freedom, Bezalel, and higher education in Israel, in light of the police questioning of a first year student following the hanging of a poster in the hallway."
They added that works within the academy do not constitute a "call to action."
"The purpose of art education is to provide an opportunity to ask questions about personal space, social [space], and cultural [space], not necessarily the political [space] in which we live." the professors and lecturers added.
"The decision to [open a criminal investigation] creates a threat which hovers over the openness of discussion and study at the academy and will reduce the space for education. This is a dangerous precedent for academic freedom in Israel." the letter continued.