Bar-Ilan lecturer affair: Transfer is no longer on the margins

A mathematics lecturer at Bar-Ilan University is accused of planning mass terror attacks against Arabs and Palestinians. The article argues that the act is not an anomaly but a product of radicalization in public discourse, where ideas of transfer and genocide are sliding from the margins into the hegemony. The author calls for examining the political and social ground that enabled the planning, rather than isolating the case as a 'weed'.

A mathematics lecturer at Bar-Ilan University is accused of planning mass terror attacks against Arabs and Palestinians. According to the indictment, he planned to establish 12 terror cells that would operate in Arab localities and mixed cities, and even spoke explicitly about harming women and children. The article, by Prof. Areej Sabbagh-Khoury, argues that it would be easy for Jewish society to claim that this is a 'weed' and an extreme, anomalous individual, but this avoids the real question: on what political and social ground does the possibility of thinking about mass murder of Palestinians as a practical political plan grow? The author links the case to the genocide in Gaza, the radicalization of public discourse, and the slide of Kahanist ideas into the heart of hegemonic discourse. She mentions the outpost near Majd al-Krum as an illustration of how the question of land and Palestinian presence in the Galilee is becoming a conflict zone. The article criticizes Israeli academia for its silence in the face of genocide and ethnic cleansing, and for taking silencing measures against Palestinian students while expanding the boundaries of violent discourse against them. The author calls on Bar-Ilan University and academia as a whole to engage in deep soul-searching about their role in normalizing dehumanization and delegitimization of Palestinians.