The Hebrew University of Jerusalem will not take action against one of its faculty members, Prof. Norman Matanes, after he published an inflammatory post describing Israel as “the land of occupation” and claiming that “crime is work.” In response to a C14 inquiry, the university said: “The statements do not reflect the university’s position, but only the writer’s opinion, and were published outside the framework of his work at the university.”
2+The post opens with a story about a man who appears to be an ordinary citizen—smiling, beloved by those around him, and helpful to others. But it soon becomes clear that this “man” is actually, according to the writer, a senior security service official. “On regular days, a man lives among people as one of them… but very few know… that hidden within the man is a leader in a senior security service in some country,” he wrote.
The professor then attributes a series of grave actions to this security official. According to him, in the past the official used to detain ambulances merely on suspicion, but now, he claims, he doesn’t check them at all but orders their destruction. “Now he sees emergency ambulances only as targets. He gives direct orders: ‘No need to check, destroy them.’ The killing has become part of the plan, not an incidental phenomenon,” he wrote.
2+This is an extraordinary accusation—that security personnel are allegedly operating under a deliberate policy of harming medical teams and the wounded, not describing an isolated incident or criticism of a specific operational decision.
Later in the post, the writer claims that this man participates in protests against the government, mocks the prime minister and calls him a “criminal against democracy,” but at the same time “on his hands is the blood of civilians—not to mention children.” In doing so, he attributes to this figure responsibility for the deaths of civilians, while portraying him as someone who doesn’t see himself as complicit in “the great crime.”
2+Toward the end, the professor clarifies that this isn’t about just one figure. “Although at first glance it seems the story is about one man, the truth is it’s about thousands of men,” he wrote. With this, he expands the accusations from the fictional character to thousands of security personnel.
He closes the post with an unambiguous sentence: “So what’s the surprise? In the land of occupation, crime is work… and the smiles are a mask.” In this sentence he describes Israel as “the land of occupation” and presents crime, according to him, as an inseparable part of reality in the state.
Following the publication, C14 contacted the Hebrew University and asked whether it intends to take any action against the professor in light of the content he published. As noted, the university merely responded that these are the faculty member’s personal views, and did not indicate that any proceedings would be opened against him.