A little over a month ago, on Yom HaAtzmaut (Israeli Independence Day), I glanced at my phone on my way home. I hadn’t planned on being in Israel for Israel’s 78th birthday. I should have been back in Italy after the Passover holiday, working on my PhD, but things had taken an unexpected and disturbing turn.
A notification went off. An Italian friend had just shared the latest Instagram post from a popular student union group at my university.
I let out yet another long, nervous sigh — one of many since starting my PhD at the University of Napoli “L’Orientale” in December 2024.
The first slide of the post read in all caps: “DOTTORANDO SÌ, MA IN GENOCIDIO”. That is: “A PhD candidate, yes, but in Genocide”.
Courtesy
Under the headline: my full name, photo and a screenshot of the header from my Times of Israel blog, where I wrote two pieces about my personal experience and the intense anti-Israeli sentiment in Italy.
The student union group’s post (which to date is still up with a thousand likes and hundreds of shares and reposts) goes on for five slides about me “transforming my academic path into a stage for propaganda against the Palestine issue”, not meeting the academic standards and requirements of my program (which is totally and verifiably false) and for, according to them, daring to criticize our institution which is known for its “pluralism”.
My fellow students— anonymously, of course— also attack my self “victimisation” for speaking openly about anti-semitism in Italy. Finally, they wonder: “The question we ask ourselves is this: are we dealing with a researcher or a PhD in Genocide?”.
The caption on the post concludes with: “Standing with the Palestinian people, until victory!”. Which “victory” they’re referring to is unclear.
By the time my friend had shared the post with me, my inbox was filling up with messages from friends and contacts in Italy, worried about my safety and wondering if I had seen the post.
Only two weeks earlier, I came out of the last day of Passover to a similar flood of messages. An Italian flotilla activist, pro-Palestinian social media figure and a former folk celebrity and household name in southern Italy for allegedly having received an apparition of the Virgin Mary when he was a teenager, posted a video about me in which he gives my full name, the name of my PhD program and project and falsely claims that I am an Israeli soldier “out of uniform”, a “Hasbara soldier” and a propagandist invited to L’Orientale to create a pro-Israel narrative and “to confuse the waters”.
I had never heard of this man before and I still have no idea how or why he chose to target me.
His video received over 4,000 likes and 1,500 reposts and shares. Of the over 500 comments on the video— some calling me a “monster”, “demon”, “zionist rat” and “baby killer” and others calling for physical violence against me, wondering where I was and even wishing my body would end up “in a reinforced concrete pillar”— are comments from two of my colleagues.
The original video creator thanked both of these “courageous” colleagues in his story. One of which shared the video to his Instagram story and even agreed with a fellow commenter that it’s “difficult” not to get “violent” with me.
The famous singer, Eros Ramazzotti, even commented on the video with the word “cursed” — referring to me.
This defamatory video triggered a flood of hateful and threatening messages and comments making clear that I am not only unwelcome in Napoli and at my university, L’Orientale, but that individuals are looking for me if I return.
My academic advisors at the university, one of whom was formerly my MA advisor at Tel Aviv University before taking up his current position at L’Orientale, expressed their concern for my safety, even writing to me that the situation in Napoli was now “extremely dangerous” for me.
This is usually when people ask one of two questions: Wow, what did you do to piss everyone off? And, so what has the university done to help you?
I’ll keep it simple and answer both in one word: nothing.
The outrage and incitement against me has one cause:
I am an Israeli Jew (I’m also originally American, but that doesn’t matter to anyone involved) who won’t declare myself an “anti-Zionist”, and consequently I have failed to pass the essential ideological purity test required for me to be tolerated as an Israeli Jew.
For this, and only this, I am attacked with the libel “Israeli soldier out of uniform”, “Hasbara soldier” and “PhD in genocide”.
For over four years, I have made content about Israel and Palestine on TikTok and Instagram that doesn’t fit the black and white narratives of any side. I have always sought to deliver a unique perspective that is passionate and authentically mine — rooted in my personal and subjective experience — while also emphasizing the many objective complexities and nuances of this land that we all call home… complexities that are often inconvenient for all the clean-cut narratives, Israeli and Palestinian, left and right.
One can strongly disagree with me, but what one cannot do in good faith is claim that I am a propagandist, either pro- or anti- any side; and, certainly not claim that I am genocidal or violent in any way.
It still blows my mind that I even have to write that last part to defend myself.
As for the university: after a month of total silence in the face of this campaign of harassment and incitement against me, originating, at least in part, from within the university itself, their lawyers and the Rector have finally confirmed their willingness to “evaluate the most appropriate solutions for the peaceful continuation” of my PhD.
What does that mean exactly? We don’t know.
The ball is in their court.
What is certain is that under the current conditions and threats, it is unsafe for me to physically return to the university. And where does that leave me?
Well, put simply: deeply frustrated, isolated and searching to rebuild.
While I had imagined an outpouring of support from Jewish organizations and individuals, especially in Europe, I have learned the hard way that my public content critiquing this disastrous Israeli government, the war in Gaza and the rise in extremist Israeli violence against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, has left a sour taste in the mouth of those who would otherwise have rallied to support an Israeli academic being hounded out of Italy by anti-Zionist harassment.
Ironically, but perhaps in a sign that I’m doing something right, for the anti-Zionists I’m a genocidal “soldier of Hasbara”, and for some diaspora Zionists, I’m far too left-wing to publicly defend.
As for my PhD and forging a way forward, I continue my research independently (and the apartment hunt!) here in Israel and hope for the opportunity to complete and submit my dissertation— which is already the product of nearly two years of passion, love and hard work.
Benjamin made aliyah in 2010 and is based in Jerusalem. He completed a B.A. and M.A. in Ancient History at Tel Aviv University, and worked in Israel’s tech industry. He began his PhD in Fall 2024. He is currently working on his doctorate in Italy. Follow his account HolyLandSpeaks on Instagram, Substack and TikTok.