Amiram Goldblum, a senior chemistry professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, sparked controversy on Tuesday when he called on “Palestinians” to “establish armed militias to protect their villages and towns from the mitnachablim (a combination of the Hebrew words for settlers and terrorists).”
Facebook removed the post within hours for violating its guidelines, but Goldblum doubled-down on his statement in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 online.
“Settlers are terrorists by definition,” he said. “The settlements are all terror settlements. ‘mitnachablim’ is a term everyone uses today.”
Not really – the combination is clunky and inorganic and not easy to pronounce, and is more a makeshift insult to be used by angry leftists on social media than something the average Yossi would use in a conversation.
The term was invented by one of the two meanest columnists in the history of Israeli journalism, Sylvie Keshet (the other one was the late Heda Boshes). Keshet also invented the term “degenerals” to describe the IDF brass; Mishta-ra with an Ain at the end for the police, as in Police-Bad; she called Education Minister Limor Livnat Tzarat Hachinuch (meaning education trouble); and coined the term Mifleget Ha’Avuda – the lost party – for the Labor party).
No one uses any of the above in everyday conversation in Israel, mostly because they’re contrived and too clever by half. On the other hand, practically every Israeli rightwinger uses Tishkoret instead of Tikshoret, turning media into lying-media – the invention of the late great media lion Adir Zik ZTz”L.
Goldblum continued: “I’m not talking about the Haredim who live in Beitar Illit and Modiin Illit, rather about the masses, mainly the knitted yarmulkes, who live in the heart of the Palestinian state and who regularly support all of their people’s terrorist activity.”
Miri Srebnogur and Nisi Mizrahi, coordinators of Im Tirtzu’s Hebrew University branch who discovered and reported the post, filed a complaint with the police.
“When a professor incites to violence like this, it can harm not only the residents of Judea and Samaria, but the students on campus as well,” they said, adding, “There is no room in Israeli academia for professors who call to establish armed militias to act against Israeli civilians. The heads of Hebrew University must act quickly before his words turn into action.”
Goldblum, who serves on the public council of the US-based New Israel Fund, is an outspoken critic of Israel who is no stranger to controversy. In July 2019, he called IDF soldiers “Jewish terrorists,” and wished for a “lightning bolt” to strike them down. He also called Im Tirtzu student activists “Nazi dogs” and threatened to prevent them from getting accepted into advanced degree courses.
Hebrew University declined to comment on the latest incident.