Forgot to mention the word “terrorist”: Dr. Anat Mater, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University in the Faculty of Humanities, eulogized the terrorist Walid Deka who died in an Israeli prison. Her words caused a lot of anger, due to the fact that she chose to eulogize him with words such as “noble soul”, “intellectual” and “source of inspiration”. Deka He was involved in the kidnapping and murder of the soldier Moshe Tamm in 1984, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The late Moshe Tamm, photo: courtesy of the family
In a post she published online, Mater wrote: “I will write more about Walid Deka, the intellectual, the friend, the noble of the soul, in more detail, when I manage to find words.” According to her, over the years “we hoped that Walid would be released with his sentence shortened by a third or a few years. At the end of the terrible road, we prayed that he would be released, at least for reasons of his deteriorating health.”
She also wrote: “The smear campaign against him, which continues even after his tragic death, it is impossible to imagine any release of any kind. The only hope was that he would complete the last year of his remaining prison term, and then be released. He did not get that.”
Dr. Anat Mater and the farewell post from Walid Deka, photo: from Facebook
These are not the only words that Matar chose to praise the terrorist. It’s hard to believe, but she used the phrase “source of inspiration”. In the post she wrote to him: “Goodbye, dear and beloved friend. You were and will be an endless source of inspiration.”
This is not the first time that university lecturers present anti-Israel positions. Recently, several lecturers from academic institutions in Israel wrote a letter to American President Joe Biden and called on him to act against Israel, which they claim is “committing genocide in Gaza”.
MK Avigdor Lieberman wrote on Network X: “I want to ask the lecturer who paid tribute to the despicable terrorist Walid Deka and called him a ‘noble soul and an endless source of inspiration’ – is your source of inspiration the kidnapping and murder of a Jewish soldier?”
Tel Aviv University responded to the news: “The university totally condemns and condemns Anat Matar’s words. This is a private expression, not within the academic framework. The things will be examined later, based on the university’s policy regarding freedom of expression.”
Dr. Anat Matar’s response was not received by the time the article was published.
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