Pro-Palestinian protesters attacked a Jewish professor while he was teaching at City University of London, calling to "behead him" and labeling him a "terrorist" who should be imprisoned for serving in the IDF and his alleged involvement in Sabra and Shatila. In an interview with British broadcaster Sky News, he declared he will continue teaching as usual and said, "An entire defamation industry has been created against Israel and against Jews. They are looking for new targets."
Michael Ben-Gad, a British-born Jewish professor who teaches economics at a London university, testified that the masked protesters burst into his lecture. "I finished my lecture, protesters stood right in front of my face and called me a war criminal and a Nazi. They refused to leave. One of them threatened they would behead me," Ben-Gad said. The professor, who served in the IDF during the 1980s, said during the interview that it was not only his military service that disturbed the protesters who invaded his classroom. "The other accusations against me were that I studied at the Hebrew University, that I taught at the University of Haifa, and that I worked at the Central Bank of Israel," Ben-Gad said.
In a video posted on social media by the pro-Palestinian organization City Action for Palestine, the masked protesters can be seen shouting slogans against Israel and demanding his dismissal. According to him, the protest repeated itself this week, when the same activists entered his classroom again. Despite the threats, Ben-Gad remained resolute and said in the interview, "I intend to continue fulfilling my role. My students are entitled to at least that from me." He expressed pride in having served in the IDF. "Israel is a country under siege. It has 7.5 million Jews, and without the Israel Defense Forces, they would simply be annihilated," Ben-Gad said.
After the harsh documentation was published, Professor Ben-Gad testified that these represent a "small radical handful" of the whole, and that he received massive waves of support from around the world. "I have been teaching at the university for close to twenty years, my background has never been kept secret. There is a huge Muslim community present here. The students here are remarkably polite. No one confronted me about it until last week," Ben-Gad said.
View this post on Instagram
A City University of London spokesperson stated that the institution "fully supports freedom of expression within the law" but "will not tolerate harassment of staff and students." The university's statement also noted that it "will continue to protect its employees and students on campus."
In a post published by the pro-Palestinian organization, it was written that "Ben-Gad served in Israeli occupation forces during the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982, in which thousands of Palestinian and Lebanese men, women, and children were brutally murdered. The IDF, which Ben-Gad continues to support, is carrying out settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and indiscriminate bombings." The organization further claimed that the ceasefire does not exist and that "the Zionist project's campaign of extermination against the Palestinian people continues."
