The security for soldiers participating in the prestigious IDF course Havatzalot at Hebrew University will be increased following a threatening video released last week by the student branch of the Arab Communist Hadash party (Hebrew U Student Group Threatens IDF Soldiers, Attacks University).
Havatzalot is an elite program of the IDF, aimed to train highly skilled intelligence officers.
“The video reached the IDF’s chief intelligence officer who took it very seriously,” reported IDF Radio’s Jerusalem correspondent Yuval Segev. “The commander of the prestigious Havatzalot course at the university sent a letter to the parents of the soldiers studying at Hebrew University and explained that the security around the soldiers will be increased.”
Last week, ahead of “Nakba Day,” the student branch of Hadash at Hebrew University published an inciting video targeting IDF soldiers studying at Hebrew University.
The video, accompanied with subtitles in Arabic, Hebrew and English, depicts a timeline accusing Israel of perpetrating a range of crimes against humanity since 1948, and then accuses the IDF soldiers currently studying at Hebrew University of being complicit in these crimes.
“The Hebrew University is a partner!” charges the video after displaying a number of close-up photos of students in IDF uniform on the university’s campus. “72 years of the Palestinian Nakba. And until today.. We are confronting and fighting the occupation’s soldiers and policies: on [sic] the checkpoints, in houses and neighborhoods, and in the universities!”
The video continues: “In the library, they sat next to us.. At the checkpoints, they humiliated our families! On one hand [sic] they drink coffee with us, on the other hand they point a rifle at us.”
“They threw me out of my dorms and an occupation’s [sic] soldier took it and lived in luxury! The university’s roof became a sniper’s station, to shoot at courageous people in Issawiya!”
The video concludes: “The Nakba continues.. The Nakba is present everyday.. We have not forgotten… nor will we forget.”
The Zionist watchdog group Im Tirtzu blasted the video and sent a letter on Monday to Hebrew University’s president and dean of students demanding to close the Hadash branch on campus.
“This is serious incitement against students at our university, which can deteriorate very quickly into action,” wrote Im Tirtzu’s Hebrew University branch. “It is inconceivable that an official student branch at the university, which enjoys the services and prestige of the university, shamelessly accuses it of being a criminal and cooperating with the so-called enemy – the State of Israel and IDF soldiers.”
Im Tirtzu concluded: “We are calling on you to summon the heads of the Hadash branch to a disciplinary hearing and to exercise the full weight of the law in the face of this incitement against IDF soldiers. The university cannot allow this incitement to rear its ugly head.”
Hebrew University responded to the controversy on Monday by condemning the video, but asserting that it will not act against the student group.
“The University permits free speech for a wide range of opinions and views, so long as nothing illegal is done. In the video, which was released on social media networks, there are lies presented regarding the university. No Arab student was ‘thrown out of the dorms’ so that soldiers can live in them, and the university’s roof was never turned into a ‘sniper’s station to shoot at courageous people in Issawiya.’
“Furthermore, if anyone believes this video or some of its content constitutes incitement or some other crime, they should report it to the relevant authorities. The video does not represent the view of Hebrew University and its administration, rather only the view of the Hadash branch.”