The Im Tirtzu branch at Bar-Ilan University organized a demonstration Sunday to show support for Dr. Mordechai Kedar in the wake of the institution's decision to summon him to a disciplinary committee.
Last week, Im Tirtzu initiated a petition for Dr. Kedar, which thousands of students and lecturers at the university signed. The petition noted that the Bar-Ilan administration is acting in a hypocritical manner by disciplining Dr. Kedar since it chooses not to prosecute other lecturers at the university who support extremist organizations. The students demanded that the Bar-Ilan administration put an end to harming the #1 defender of Israel.
The petition stated: "While Israeli academics are infested with professors and doctors acting on their own behalf, whose salaries are paid by citizens of the State of Israel and who are busy devoting their time to defaming the State of Israel, supporting BDS from within, and giving succor to the state's haters and promoting anti- and post-Zionism, Bar-Ilan University has chosen specifically to discipline Dr. Kedar, and to suspend him from representing the university."
Following the protest, Im Tirtzu submitted the petition to the university president and rector.
Matan Peleg, chairman of the Im Tirtzu movement, said, "We have come here to support an honorable man who has tirelessly worked for Israel throughout the world for years and to protest against the absurd hypocrisy the university is showing toward him. It's impossible that there are lecturers, even at Bar-Ilan and in academia in general, who incited against IDF soldiers and the state of Israel and publicly promoted a boycott against Israel throughout the world in the name of academic freedom of expression [and the university didn't discipline them.]"
"When an honorable lecturer expresses a different opinion, as far-fetched as it may be, he undergoes a total denunciation and terrible humiliation. We will not accept this phenomenon. The public's presence at our protest proves that the Jewish people also completely reject this indecent phenomenon."