Swiss university fires lecturer over pro-Hamas tweet
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A masked man carrying the flag of the Palestinian Hamas movement during a march in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, to express solidarity with the Gaza Strip.
PHOTO: AFP
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GENEVA – The University of Bern said on Tuesday it has fired a lecturer for “unacceptable” comments on X, formerly Twitter, purporting to welcome the deadly Hamas attack on Israel.
The unnamed academic described the attack on Oct 7 that killed more than 1,400 people
In another post, likewise since deleted, he wrote Shabbat Shalom (Peace be Sabbath) commenting on a video of the Hamas raid, which drew a furious Israeli response that has killed some 3,000 across the Gaza Strip.
The lecturer told 20 Minuten daily that “I have always strongly condemned violence against civilians and attacks on Jews,” adding that he “fundamentally rejected Hamas policy and that of similar groups”. But the university sacked him.
Also, the university said it had suspended Associate Professor Serena Tolino for the duration of an investigation into its Institute for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Societies, for which the lecturer worked. The probe is expected to last two months.
“The university management takes this affair very seriously. The circumstances and the events which have taken place within the institute will now be carefully clarified,” university rector Christian Leumann said in a statement.
The university had initially last week suspended the academic after the “unacceptable postings on X” came to light pending further clarification.
In confirming he had been dismissed, the university added it “condemns all forms of violence and support” for violence.
“The termination without notice is due to the intolerable behaviour and the resulting loss of trust,” Mr Christoph Pappa, secretary-general of the University of Bern, told reporters. AFP
