Anger as Tel Hai College lecturer says Israel, ‘like Third Reich,’ lost right to exist

A Tel Hai College lecturer was under fire Thursday over remarks comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and asserting that, “like the Third Reich,” the Jewish state no longer has the right to exist due to its actions during the war against Hamas in Gaza.

The northern college has distanced itself from Ilana Hairston’s comments and its student union declared that they harmed the memory of the Holocaust, while Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel said the lecturer had crossed “a moral and national red line.”

On October 7 of this year, the second anniversary of the Hamas massacre that started the war, Hairston wrote on her Facebook page about Israel’s interception days earlier of a flotilla that aimed to breach the blockade of the Gaza Strip.

“Just like the Third Reich lost its right to exist, so too has the State of Israel. Just like murderers and rapists have the right to exist in prison, so too Israel’s leadership has the right to a long life behind bars,” she wrote.

Images of participants in the Global Sumud Flotilla being arrested were “hair-raising,” she wrote. “The Genocide State in all its glory — beatings, kneeling positions with hands cuffed behind the back for hours, prevention of medical treatment, humiliating treatment, and threats.”

Israel has rejected accusations of abuse by flotilla participants as “brazen lies.”

According to the Tel Hai College website, Hairston’s main discipline is psychology.

Anger has been swelling against Hairston for several days, apparently after her remarks came to the attention of the student union. Hairston has stood by her remarks, insisting she has the right to post her views on her personal social media account.

The school said in a statement Thursday: “The harsh remarks by the lecturer were written as her personal opinion alone, on her private account, and do not represent the position and stand in complete contrast to [the position] of Tel Hai Academic College.”

Shahar Yifrach, chair of the Tel Hai Student Union, said in a statement reported by the Israel Hayom outlet that the union “strongly condemns these remarks,” while adding that comparing Israel to the Third Reich was a “dangerous comparison that harms the memory of the Holocaust and harms reservist soldiers, some of whom are our students.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Haskel said in a post to X that Hairston’s remarks “cross a moral and national red line.”

She called for “putting an end to the phenomenon of lecturers who slander the country and act against the people who pay their wages.”

The right-wing group Professors for a Strong Israel said in a statement that Israeli academia “cannot become a shelter for lecturers who slander Israel,” Israel Hayom reported.

It warned that there is a “serious phenomenon of lecturers in higher education institutes who are taking advantage of freedom of speech in order to harm Israel and IDF soldiers.”

David Azoulay, mayor of the town of Metula, near Tel Hai, said in a statement, “I could not believe what I saw.” He said the fact that a person in Israel could write such things showed the “bankruptcy” of society and law enforcement.

He called for Hairston to be put on trial — though he did not specify on what charge — and asked, “Is everything permitted in the name of academic freedom?”

On Wednesday, as outrage grew over her remarks, Hairston wrote on Facebook that the day before, the college dean had asked her about the post to verify that she had not mentioned any association with the school, which she confirmed, according to a Ynet report.

“With that, the ‘clarification’ ended,” she wrote. However, she was then called in for another clarification because “the student union claimed I had crossed a ‘red line’ by comparing Israel and IDF soldiers to the Third Reich.”

But Hairston was unapologetic. “People who don’t want to be compared to fascists in the style of the Third Reich should not behave in that way,” she said.

Hairston said that those who look at her Facebook feed do so of their own accord and are welcome to argue with her there.

Head of the hawkish opposition Yisrael Beytenu party Avigdor Liberman posted to X: “Anyone who compares Israel to the Nazis not only should not be teaching in an academy, they should be brought to trial.”

In 2024, over two dozen Israeli academics joined a petition that characterized Israel’s conduct in Gaza as a “plausible genocide.”

Fighting in Gaza was halted earlier this month under a US-brokered ceasefire.

The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 66,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed over 22,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel during the October 7 onslaught.

Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.