A Hebrew University professor caused uproar in Israel on Monday for calling its Justice Minister a “neo-Nazi scum” over a new controversial NGO bill and alleged complicity in genocide. The controversy came after political science professor Ofer Cassif posted the comment on his Facebook profile when sharing a post from another professor at the university making similar accusations. Professor Amiram Goldblum had written that the election campaign of Israel’s Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked “was based among others on money collected in exchange for arms sold to killers in Sierra Leone and in South America,” the Times of Israel reported. Goldblum refers to Jewish Belgian diamond dealer Serge Muller, who indeed funded the campaigns of various elected ministers – including Shaked – and was arrested in March for drug trafficking, selling arms to criminals and money laundering. In addition to Goldblum’s post, Cassif called the Justice Minister a “neo-Nazi scum” responsible for making Israel “fascist” and being complicit in “genocide in Africa and crimes against humanity.” Shaked responded to the allegations saying that a “frail line was crossed between freedom of speech and incitement and the poisoning of the public discourse," Haaretz reported. "I'm sure that law enforcement will deal with this incident in the appropriate manner," she added. Various government officials have called on the university to distance itself from Cassif and to consider firing him. Hebrew University, however, claims no responsibility for comments made by professors in their private life. “The University is not responsible for the comments of the lecturers and it is not [the University's] job to deal with them as long as the academic stage is not being exploited to distribute them,” the Hebrew University said in a statement. “Anyone who believes this or another statement constitutes incitement or a violation of state laws should turn to law enforcement authorities.” Cassif has not shied away from his remarks and has gone even further in an interview with Israel Radio. “I think it's fair to compare Israel to Germany in the 1930s, and not to the years of genocide,” he said, as reported by Haaretz. “The spotlights,” said Cassif, “need to be aimed at the minister and her government, not at me ... we have moved into a completely different phase in the history of this country. We are now the Germany of the 1930s and this is expressed in the completely Nazi video that Im Tirtzu released and also in the nonprofit organization law.” The NGO law referred to by Cassif has stirred controversy in Israel and the international community for forcing leftist groups battling the military occupation of Palestine to make its foreign funding public. Source URL |
