University lecturer posts photo of man defecating on Israeli flag, questioned

A former lecturer at the Open University and Tel Aviv University was questioned Thursday with a warning, on suspicion of damaging the flag, after he posted a picture of a figure defecating on the Israeli flag on his Facebook account, according to Israeli media.

The lecturer ended his employment at the Open University in March 2023, and the academic institution was shocked by the publications he published.

In another post recently published by the suspect, he called female IDF soldiers the "Joy Divisions"—after brothels of Jewish women who were forced to provide sexual services to Nazi soldiers in World War II—which appear in the 1953 novella House of Dolls by Ka-Tsetnik 135633, pen name of Jewish Auschwitz survivor Yehiel De-Nur.

Suspect questioned

The suspect was investigated in the Tel Aviv district police station's cyber unit this week; at the end of his investigation, he was released under restrictive conditions.

The Open University's response: "In light of the report that a former supervisor made a shocking post on social media, during the days when our enemies massacred innocents—children, women, adults and civilians—we would like to emphasize that the supervisor is not teaching at our institution this year; we contacted him and demanded that he immediately remove his affiliation with the Open University."