Prof. Yael Barda, a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and an advisor to doctoral students at the Hebrew University, published an article in Haaretz on November 16th, in which she calls for refusal to serve, and claimed that ''Israel is carrying out ethnic cleansing.''
According to Barda, who published the article with Miron Rapoport, ''refusal to serve was and remains the most powerful tool against the current government's eternal war plans,'' and the time has come to "establish the Israeli Committee Against Ethnic Cleansing and War Crimes.''
Barda and Rapoport also claim that ''what Israel is doing today in Gaza is more akin to a war of extermination.''
In response, the CEO of Im Tirtzu, Matan Jerafi, called on the president of the Hebrew University to fire Professor Barda.
"I have just returned from a long period of reserve duty, in Gaza and Lebanon, and I discover that a senior lecturer at the university where I studied is calling for defection and claiming the war in Gaza is ethnic cleansing," he said.
"It is unbelievable that students who have returned from reserve duty should study with her! The war is unfortunately revealing the ugly face of some of the Israeli academia; the university president has an obligation to fire her!"
Hebrew University responded: "Professor Barda's words were written as her personal opinion only, and represent only her."