"We denounce you": the students at Tel Aviv University protest against the lecturer who supported a terrorist/if you will
Today (Thursday), the National Student Union appealed to the legal adviser to the government, Gali Beharve-Miara, with a call to deny budgets from academic institutions that employ faculty members "who express support for terrorism and work against the State of Israel". This, against the background of the anger over the obituary published by Dr. Anat Mater from Tel Aviv University on the terrorist Walid Daka, and over the words of Prof. Nadira Shalhoub-Kivorkian from the Hebrew University, who denied some of the atrocities of October 7.
"We are witnessing more and more faculty and lecturers at the academy spreading their scandalous views that encourage violence and incite terrorism, while harming public security and the fundamental values of the State of Israel," wrote the chairman of the association Elhanan Fellheimer. "I appeal to you to please consider the matter and examine the great damage caused by the phenomenon of incitement to terrorism by faculty members and lecturers in the academic institutions in the State of Israel. This phenomenon, which includes spreading hatred towards Jews and the State of Israel, spreading support for terrorist activists and showing contempt for the symbols of the state, deserves Condemn not only in words but also in actions through quick and decisive actions."
Fellheimer wrote in his appeal that the rejection of the budget would send "a clear message to all academic institutions that the state will not tolerate harm to its national security and values, and that there are boundaries that cannot be crossed with the absurd excuse of 'academic freedom' and 'freedom of expression'". He concluded that he is "convinced beyond any doubt that the proposed measures will be used to ensure the development of academia in Israel while maintaining the values of the state and the security of its citizens, including the student public".
Students at Tel Aviv University protested today by calling for the "immediate firing" of the lecturer Dr. Anat Mater, who wrote an obituary on Facebook for the terrorist Walid Deka, who died earlier this week in prison from cancer. Dr. Mater, a lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, described Deka on her Facebook account, who was convicted of involvement in the squad that kidnapped and murdered the soldier Moshe Tamm in the 1980s, with the words "an endless source of inspiration", as well as "an intellectual, a friend, a noble soul". The things were deleted by the hour from the network.
"Over the years, we hoped that Walid would be released with his sentence shortened by a third or, unfortunately, by a few years. At the end of the terrible road, we prayed that he would be released at least for the sake of his deteriorating health," Matar wrote in the post, "The smear campaign against him, which continues even after his tragic death, it is impossible to imagine any release, For some reason. The only hope was that he would complete the last year of his remaining prison term and then be released. He didn't get that."
Dr. Mater added a message that he wrote to her Deka after Shalit's release: "I was very happy and even moved to see Gilad Shalit released and return to his family and life," Deka wrote to her, "because a person whose freedom has been taken away understands deep in his soul that freedom has no nationality or skin color. And whoever does not face this does not understand the essence of freedom. When the boy/soldier first appeared on the television screen skinny, shy, confused, I almost screamed - oh how miserable and stupid we are. I discussed my feelings with the prisoners and found that I am not alone in this feeling." She concluded by saying that her heart "is with the entire Palestinian people, who today lost one of their most excellent sons."
And near Deka, the one who kidnapped and murdered the soldier Moshe Tamm in 1984, and the veteran of the security prisoners died last Sunday at the age of 64, after suffering from cancer for the past year. This, less than a year before he was supposed to be released in March 2025.
The statement caused great anger among students at the university. Some of them called for the suspension of school until she was dismissed. Also, a WhatsApp group under the title "Fire Anat Matar" was opened, and its description reads: "The time has come to stop anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel." There the protest was announced today.
"A demonstration on Thursday in Antin Square - to fire Anat Matar!", reads the invitation to the protest sent by the students. "A philosophy lecturer from the university, Anat Mater, wrote a post on Facebook about how much it pains her that a terrorist kidnapped, tortured and murdered the soldier Moshe Tamm, who died in 1984 - died of cancer. Therefore, we will go to a demonstration with the aim of calling for her dismissal due to her horrific words!"
The student organizers wrote that the demonstration is not politically identified. "It has nothing to do with right/left, Bibi/non-Bibi, Jew/Arab - this is a call to everyone who agrees that the public veneration of a person known for murder On an ethnic background, it is a terrible incitement that goes far beyond the limits of freedom of expression."