Anti-Israel group’s website reportedly offers bounties on heads of Israeli academics worldwide: ‘Nutcases’
An anti-Israel group’s website is offering bounties of up to $100,000 for the murder of Israeli academics, according to reports.
The Punishment for Justice Movement not only named specific targets and prices on their heads, but also published personal information like home addresses, emails and phone numbers, The Jerusalem Post reported.
The academics who were targeted work at universities like Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, the Technion public research university in Haifa and even Harvard and Oxford universities and the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
Along with offering $100,000 for the killing of “special targets,” $50,000 was being offered for the murder of other targets, as well as $20,000 to set fire to their homes or car, $5,000 for information about a target and $1,000 to put protest signs outside their homes.
The website, created last summer and apparently originating in the Netherlands, briefly went down Friday night but was back up Saturday, the outlet reported.
The website is written in English, according to The Times of Israel, and accuses its targets of being “criminals and collaborators with the occupation army,” referring to the war in Gaza.
It also accuses the targets of being “distributors of weapons of mass destruction to the Israeli army” who are “involved in the murder of Palestinian children,” The Jerusalem Post reported.
The organization claimed to have warned the targets to “abandon criminal activity” and stop working with the Israel Defense Forces but claimed they ignored the warnings. So, they are now “legitimate targets for the movement,” according to the Times.
Two targeted academics told the Post they received no warning, and several of those targeted at the European Organization for Nuclear Research said they hadn’t worked on military projects, but the website creators seemed to be mixed up by the word “nuclear.”
One targeted academic told the Post, “The competent government agencies should suggest more comprehensive solutions” than just taking down the website “because walking around with targets on our heads puts at risk not only us, but also our families.”
However, Michael Bronstein, who teaches computer science at Oxford, told the Post he didn’t “give a damn” about the bounty on his life, calling those threatening him “nutcases.”
“I was profoundly disturbed and shocked that my head was valued so cheaply. Considering my standing in the academic community, I find anything below a seven-figure highly offensive,” he told the Post. “I am, however, consoled that I am at least in a good company.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to the Anti-Defamation League for comment.
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