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Israeli professor under fire after accusing IDF of ‘ethnic cleansing’

Sociology professor at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University calls for IDF soldiers to refuse orders, accusing the Jewish state of ‘ethnically cleansing’ the northern Gaza Strip during the ongoing war against Hamas.

By World Israel News Staff

An Israeli university lecturer is under fire after she accused the military of “ethnically cleansing” the northern Gaza Strip during the ongoing war against the Hamas terror organization, and penned an opinion article calling on Israeli soldiers to refuse orders during the war in Gaza.

Earlier this month, the left-wing Hebrew daily Ha’aretz published an article coauthored by journalist Meron Rapoport and Dr. Yael Barda, assistant professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

“Israel has perpetrated ethnic cleansing in the northern Gaza Strip,” reads the opening line of the opinion piece.

“Through starvation, denial of health care, bombings and the destruction of both homes and the schools where the displaced sought shelter, Israel has forced the vast majority of residents of the Jabalya refugee camp, Beith Hanoun and Beit Lahia to leave their place of residence.”

Rapoport and Barda also explicitly call on Israeli soldiers to refuse orders from their commanding officers in wartime.

“Refusing to serve was and remains the strongest card we have to play against the current government’s plans for perpetual war. And that’s especially true now, since Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election may well remove the brakes that have until now prevented Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his partners from completing the ethnic cleansing of Gaza City.”

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On Monday, the pro-Israel activist group Im Tirtzu called on Hebrew University administrators to fire Barda over her accusations and call to refuse orders.

“I have just returned from a long period of reserve duty, in Gaza and Lebanon, and I discover that a senior lecturer at the university where I studied is calling for defection and claiming that what the IDF does in Gaza is ethnic cleansing,” said the CEO of Im Tirtzu, Matan Jerafi.

“It is unbelievable that students who have returned from reserve duty should study with her? The war is unfortunately revealing the ugly face of some of the Israeli academia, the university president has an obligation to fire her!”