Monday, Feb. 26, 2024
Did an Israeli military officer speaking to UW-Madison students advocate killing babies?
An Israeli Defense Forces officer acknowledged at a Feb. 18 Chabad of Madison speech that Israeli soldiers have killed babies, but immediately added it was unintentional and "horrible."
A Feb. 24 Instagram video clip of former Chabad of Madison Israel fellow Oz Bin Nun's speech, which garnered more than 706,000 views, misconstrued his comments by omitting important context.
“Everyone seeing our soldiers now in Gaza fighting can't say words like genocide or baby killers. We do, however, and it's important to say, kill babies,” Bin Nun says in the original video.
A longer clip shows he continued, “This is horrible. It's awful. We never did this on purpose. Never ever. But it's happening and it's horrible.”
The video caption and reposts from Students for Justice in Palestine UW also inaccurately stated that University of Wisconsin-Madison hosted the speaker. Chabad of Madison is independent of UW-Madison.
Editor's note: This story corrects an earlier version that misquoted Oz Bin Nun’s statement. He said “can’t say words,” not “can.” Also, the speech took place on Feb. 18.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Instagram #Africa4Palestine on Instagram: "We just received this leaked video….. Why did @uwmadison host this baby killer? @uwchancellor"
- Students for Justice in Palestine - UW Madison Students for Justice in Palestine - UW Madison
- Full speech clip - Chabad of Madison Full speech clip - Chabad of Madison
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