Lecturer who claimed IDF soldiers murder children reinstated

Ben Gurion University in Be'er Sheva has reinstated Dr. Sebastian Ben Daniel, a computer science lecturer at the university, who was suspended after he published posts against IDF soldiers on social media.

The university wrote in a statement: "The rector of the university inspected the complaints regarding posts by Dr. Sebastian Ben Daniel (John Brown) and decided to cancel his suspension."

The university explained that "the lecturer apologized for his statements and understood that he must take into consideration that his style of writing may offend his students; he accepted his suspension with understanding and cooperated with the investigation; it should be noted that he has been teaching for many years and is a respected lecturer. It should be stressed that the university disapproves of what he wrote and they do not represent it in any way."

Ben Daniel, who goes by the name John Brown on social media, sparked controversy when he posted several posts in which he accused IDF soldiers of murdering children.

In one of his tweets, he wrote: "This 7-year-old boy was murdered by order of a Death Eater from the Eli Academy. Not accidentally, a targeted shooting in order to kill... The soldiers who receive it must be willing executioners." In another tweet, he claimed that "IDF soldiers murder babies, not because of orders, but because they were raised to be baby killers." In the past, he even published posts in which he accused the IDF and the Israeli justice system of responsibility for the murder of Palestinian Arabs.

Following these remarks, the Im Tirtzu movement led a petition calling for Ben Daniel's dismissal. "We condemn and oppose the defamatory and unfounded statements that accuse us and our military comrades of infanticide," the petition, signed by over 500 students, reads. Ernest Ivnitsky, the head of Im Tirtzu's student division, said: "Dr. Ben Daniel is welcome to teach at universities in the United States, where his antisemitic views will be accepted. He has no place in Israeli academia."

Ben-Gurion University issued an official statement clarifying that it "condemns and rejects in the strongest terms John Brown's slanderous remarks against IDF soldiers," but noted that the remarks were not part of his academic activities. In addition, Dr. Ben Daniel sent a letter to his students, in which he clarified and apologized to those who were offended by his published remarks.