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Ben Gurion University professor Idan Landau, author of the important Israeli blog, Not to Die a Fool, protested a decision by University President Rivka Carmi to punish Landau for refusing to perform his reserve military service in the Occupied Territories. For the week he spent in military prison, the University has docked 50% of his salary.

The professor of foreign languages protested the punitive measure and announced that he no longer found the school to be his “academic home” and would search for an institution that would be more congenial to his values. The faculty association has announced that it will stand behind Landau in protesting his punishment.

This is the same Rivka Carmi who told Neve Gordon that his support for BDS meant he shouldn’t be teaching at Ben Gurion, because it was a fundamentally “Zionist” institution and he had committed “treason.” Naturally Neve remained at the school where he chairs his academic department. Also the same Rivka Carmi who sat by and watched as University trustee, Michael Gross said the world would be better off with Prof. David Newman dead. Newman ran for the position of dean of the humanities and social sciences and won thanks to the bullying and administration’s passivity. Also, the same school which informally offered Assaf Oron a job, only to have Prof. Yisrael David Israel introduce purely political criteria into the hiring process, causing the department to withdraw the offer.

In related news, Peace Now activist, Hagit Ofran suffered the second round of vandalism and death threats at her home from settler brutalists, who scrawled graffiti threatening her life. The faux terrorist buzzed her intercom and told her he’d left a bomb at her doorstep which would explode in 10 minutes. She called the bomb squad and the building was evacuated. A few days earlier, Israeli emergency services were called in a ruse to Peace Now’s Jerusalem office. Naturally, the police seem to have lost the ability to do their jobs and find and arrest suspects. Funny thing how that happens when the victims are Palestinian or Jewish peace activists.