Follow-ups - FiMED

An indictment filed by the Israeli prosecution against a mathematics professor at Bar-Ilan University has revealed an ideological document written by the defendant which, according to the judicial claim, included a plan to carry out widespread acts of violence against Palestinian citizens in Israel and the West Bank and to push for their displacement.

According to what Israel's Channel 13 reported, the lecturer named his plan «העי"ט – עם יעשה טרנספר», which means, according to the name given in the document, "The people will carry out the transfer."

The indictment says the document was prepared against the backdrop of Operation "Guardian of the Walls" and the war that began on October 7, 2023, and contained an ideological conception and a practical plan to move against Palestinians.

A plan to target Arab towns

According to the indictment, the defendant called for carrying out simultaneous operations in mixed cities and Arab towns, within a plan that included recruiting dozens of activists and dividing them into armed cells. The prosecution accuses him of planning to form 72 members in 12 groups to carry out simultaneous attacks, while attempting to secure support from elements inside the Israeli army, as stated in the indictment.

The document also included, according to the claim, plans to target friction areas, roads, and the entrances and exits of Arab towns and mixed cities and medical facilities, alongside calls to carry out mass killings.

Field preparations and recruitment attempts

The accusations are not limited to drafting the document, as the prosecution says the defendant conducted field tours and took aerial photographs in Arab areas, including the Tuba-Zangariyya area, in order to study the sites the plan could target. He also tried, according to the indictment, to establish a network to recruit activists from the Israeli right and to organize a secret meeting to push the project to the implementation stage.

The prosecution adds that the defendant approached political figures in order to obtain support for his plan, before moving, according to the claim, to directing threats at them after they refused to cooperate with him.

Terrorism and extortion charges

The prosecution filed charges against the lecturer including preparation to carry out a terrorist act, extortion by threat, and obstruction of justice. The indictment says he also prepared a threatening message addressed to political officials, which included a threat to publish the document and cause them political harm ahead of the upcoming Knesset elections if they refused to cooperate with him.

The prosecution stressed that the plan, as conceived, went beyond the stage of theoretical ideas and moved to attempts at recruitment, field preparation, and the establishment of mechanisms for its implementation.

Bar-Ilan University: No tolerance for this phenomenon

Bar-Ilan University strongly condemned the acts attributed to the lecturer and announced his immediate suspension until the judicial proceedings conclude.

The university said it condemns what was stated in the indictment and called on the police and the prosecution to deal firmly with the case if the charges are proven before the courts, stressing its rejection of what it described as phenomena that conflict with the values of the university and society.

A transfer plan turns into a criminal case

The case reveals, according to what was stated in the indictment, the transition of a discourse calling for deportation and violence against Palestinians from the level of ideological propositions to an attempt to build a practical plan for implementation, according to the prosecution's claim.