Ben-Gurion University reinstates lecturer who called IDF soldiers ‘baby murderers’
Institution says Sebastian Ben Daniel apologized for his online comments and cooperated with investigation, after he was suspended following outrage over remarks
Ben-Gurion University on Tuesday reinstated a teacher who it suspended last week during a probe of his inflammatory comments, including referring to IDF soldiers as “baby murderers.”
The university said in a statement that its rector looked into the complaints about the statements made by Sebastian Ben Daniel, a lecturer in the computer science department, “and decided to lift his suspension.”
The Beersheba-based university said that Ben Daniel “apologized for his comments as they were published, and understood that he needs to take into account that his style of writing could hurt students studying with him.”
Ben Daniel cooperated with the investigation against him, said the university, which described the professor as a “respected lecturer” who has taught for many years.
The university stressed that it does not support anything Ben Daniel wrote and that his comments do not represent the academic institution in any way.
Ben Daniel was suspended last week after more than 1,000 students reportedly signed a complaint, circulated by the right-wing organization Im Tirtzu, about his online comments, which were published under the alias “John Brown.”
Some of his posts on X which were highlighted in Hebrew media included remarks that IDF soldiers “voluntarily” follow orders to “murder children,” that troops are “taught to murder Palestinian children,” and that IDF soldiers are “baby murderers, not because of orders, but because they were taught to murder babies.”
A longtime critic of Israeli military activity, Ben Daniel has also in recent weeks accused the IDF of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” in the West Bank and of implementing “apartheid,” and said that many Palestinian prisoners held in Israel should also be considered hostages held by the “Jewish Hamas.” He has also referred to religious Israeli settlers as “Hamas in every possible way.”
In a post on X last week, Ben Daniel obliquely tweeted: “By the way, when they say ‘it’s not an issue of free speech’ it is always ‘an issue of free speech.'”
The Haaretz newspaper cited Ben Daniel on Tuesday saying in response to his reinstatement that “I think ultimately free speech won — an important thing always, and 10 times over in a time of war.”
The lecturer said the attempts to have him ousted from his job are part of “a struggle for democratic values, and for academia as the almost last bastion of free thought and freedom for all of us.”
After his suspension was lifted, Im Tirtzu called on its supporters to send messages to the president of the university demanding Ben Daniel be removed: “A lecturer cannot be allowed to incite against soldiers, against religious people and against Mizrahi Jews.”
In an apology letter he published last week, Ben Daniel accused “political actors” of working to stifle freedom of speech in going after him.
“I regret that the witch hunt over what I wrote on the social networks is affecting you, and has entered the study hall by force and against our will,” he wrote in a letter to his students, as reported by Hebrew media outlets. He claimed that “political actors” had taken his remarks out of context and stressed that his public criticism was “entirely separate” from his academic work.
