Ben-Gurion University suspends lecturer who said IDF soldiers are ‘taught to murder’
School condemns remarks by Sebastian Ben Daniel, posted under his alias ‘John Brown’; in apology letter, he asserts ‘political actors’ are trying to stifle freedom of speech
Stuart Winer is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev suspended a lecturer on Wednesday over his criticism of the Israel Defense Forces, which includes asserting that soldiers are “taught to murder Palestinian children.”
The school said that Dr. Sebastian Ben Daniel, of the computer science department, would be suspended until the matter had been fully probed.
Ben Daniel, who posts to social media under the alias “John Brown,” has long published inflammatory criticism of the IDF.
Over a thousand students reportedly asked for his suspension after the posts were highlighted in media reports.
The university said in a statement that it “condemns and completely rejects the insulting remarks of John Brown that slandered IDF soldiers, particularly as many of the university community are themselves soldiers.”
It noted that published comments, “terrible as they were,” were not made as part of Ben Daniel’s academic role.
"חיילי צה"ל הם רוצחי תינוקות כי הם חונכו להיות רוצחי תינוקות".
את המשפט החמור, השקרי והמסית הזה שהוא לא פחות מעלילת דם אמר מרצה באוניברסיטת בן גוריון- "דוקטור" סבסטיאן בן דניאל.
ה"דוקטור" הזה מרצה בפני סטודנטים ששירתו בצבא או משרתים במילואים וקורא להם רוצחי תינוקות!
אנחנו נלחמים… pic.twitter.com/9xZc7fQB7V— יוסף חדאד – Yoseph Haddad (@YosephHaddad) March 5, 2025
Earlier this week, Ben Daniel held a meeting with the university rector. On Wednesday, he published an apology letter that accused “political actors” of working to stifle freedom of speech.
“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 the students, as reported by Hebrew media outlets.
He claimed that “political actors” had taken his remarks out of context and stressed that his criticism was “entirely separate” from my academic work.
“The goal is always to keep things separate,” he said. “With that, I know that my remarks have consequences for you and that the separation is not absolute, no matter how much I wanted it to be, and how much I intended it to be.
“If any of you were hurt by the things that have been publicized, I apologize for that here and hope you understand that that was not my intention.”
He criticized his suspension, saying the aim of the politicians “is not to harm me, but freedom of speech in Israel, and that by way of fatal harm to academia, which is the last fortress standing before them.” He drew a comparison to the days of dictatorship in his native Argentina.
Among the posts he has published, as reported in Hebrew media, are 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.”
The right-wing Im Tirzu organization dismissed the apology letter, saying in a statement that “the lecturer did not retract his words and published an embarrassing apology.”
It said suspension was not enough and that Ben Daniel should have been dismissed. The group filed a complaint with police for suspected incitement against soldiers, Walla reported.
The right-wing Btsalmo nonprofit welcomed the suspension.
“Anyone who incites against IDF soldiers and Israeli citizens should be in the garbage bin of history and not in academia,” it said in a statement.
