Letter to Ben Gurion University administration demands firing of professor who says IDF troops execute infants.
By World Israel News Staff
More than one thousand Israeli students at Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba are calling for the firing of a professor, who claimed on social media that IDF soldiers murder infants.
Dr. Sebastian Ben-Daniel, a computer science lecturer who uses the moniker John Brown on X, has made a number of incendiary comments against the Israeli military in recent weeks.
Statements from Ben-Daniel’s account include “IDF soldiers are baby killers because they were raised to be baby killers,” and that “IDF soldiers are murderers” whom only “The Hague can hold the accountable.”
“We, the signatories of the attached letter, students at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, condemn and oppose the defamatory and unfounded statements that accuse us and our military comrades of infanticide,” read a letter demanding Ben-Daniel’s firing, written by the Zionist watchdog group Im Tirtzu.
The letter was signed by 1,153 students.
“On October 7, we enlisted to defend the State of Israel and its citizens after the terrible massacre carried out by the terrorist organization Hamas,” the letter continued.
“We will not agree to the continued employment of a lecturer who echoes anti-Semitic propaganda. We call on you, the university president, to dismiss him immediately.”
Ben-Gurion University President Professor Daniel Haimovitch responded to the letter on his Facebook page, stating that the school was taking the matter seriously.
“Unfortunately, in recent days the university has found itself at the heart of a public storm following the exposure of the offensive and false statements of an outside lecturer against IDF soldiers,” Haimovitch wrote.
“These are offensive, libelous statements that deeply hurt our students, our faculty and all members of our community/ We have forwarded the matter to the relevant authorities for further processing. From now on, the duty of responsibility for his actions and their meaning lies with him… We cannot – and will not – remain silent in the face of statements of this kind.”
Notably, the statement did not specify possible consequences for Ben-Daniel, including whether he would be fired.
“Dr. Ben Daniel is invited to move to teach at Berkeley or Columbia University in the U.S., where his antisemitic views will be accepted,” Ernest Ivanitzky, student coordinator for Im Tirtzu at Ben-Gurion University, said in a media statement.
“He has no place in Israeli academia, he should be fired immediately. His statements are a slap in the face of the students who are forced to study with him. A disgrace.”