The University of Bern has fired without notice a lecturer who had made positive comments about the Hamas attacks on Israel. An administrative investigation of the Middle East Institute has also been initiated and a co-director temporarily relieved of her duties.
“The University of Bern is confronted with an unprecedented case that has triggered an enormous public response,” the university said on Tuesday. The controversial posts made on the social platform X, formerly Twitter, are unacceptable, it added, and the institution condemns any kind of violence or support for it.
The lecturer from the Institute for Middle Eastern Studies and Muslim Societies allegedly wrote on X that the Hamas attack was the best present he had received before his birthday.
In another post, he allegedly commented on a video of the Hamas raid with the words “Shabbat Shalom” (“Peace be Sabbath”). The online posts have since been deleted.
The termination without notice is due to the intolerable behaviour and the resulting loss of trust, Christoph Pappa, Secretary-General of the University of Bern, told the media.
As part of the administrative investigation, the management of the institute will go through an external assessment. Co-director Serena Tolino will be relieved of her duties during the investigation.
The public prosecutor’s office in Bern is currently examining the facts of the case to determine whether they are criminally relevant. The investigation is not yet complete, the spokesperson of the public prosecutor’s office told the Keystone-SDA news agency on Tuesday.
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