Deputy minister storms into university lecture to protest against instructor’s criticism of Israeli actions in Gaza

Far-right MK and deputy minister Almog Cohen stormed into a lecture being given at Ben-Gurion University to protest against the instructor who has criticized the IDF’s actions in Gaza.

Cohen was joined by activists from the ultra-nationalist Im Tirzu organization who filmed the incident and posted it online.

The lecturer targeted was Dr. Sebastian Ben-Daniel, who publishes criticism of Israel under the name John Brown.

The university condemned Cohen’s actions, saying he interrupted a class for IDF reservists who were prevented from making up work they had missed.

“This is an especially regrettable incident — both because it harmed soldiers who returned from the front and are trying to complete their studies and because such conduct is not becoming of an elected official,” the school said in a statement.

“I came this morning to Ben-Gurion University due to the lecturer Sebastian Ben-Daniel’s anti-Semitic remarks, who called the IDF’s heroic soldiers ‘baby murderers, war criminals, neo‑Nazis,’ etc. I will not allow someone who is paid with public funds to express himself this way when many of his students — on the right or the left — are reservists themselves,” Cohen said in his own statement.

Earlier this year, Ben-Gurion University reinstated Ben-Daniel after a brief suspension during a probe of his inflammatory comments, including referring to IDF soldiers as “baby murderers.”