An Israeli professor plotted to massacre Palestinians. Social media rejoiced
Fadi Shabita writes in +972 on 4 November 2026:
Last week’s election raised hopes around the world that Israel might finally rid itself of its extreme-right government and begin to reverse its descent into fascism. But replacing the politicians who have presided over that descent will do little to confront the attitudes that have become entrenched across Jewish-Israeli society. For a window into how far violence against Palestinians has been normalized, one need only examine the public’s response to a recently exposed plot by an Israeli professor to commit a massacre.
On Oct. 5, Israeli prosecutors indicted Shahar Nevo, a 59-year-old mathematics professor at Tel Aviv’s Bar-Ilan University, for allegedly plotting to kill hundreds of Palestinian citizens of Israel and residents of the occupied West Bank. According to the indictment, Nevo spent more than three years developing a plan to recruit 72 Jewish attackers who would be divided into 12 armed cells, in order to carry out simultaneous attacks on Palestinian communities. He estimated that 600 to 700 people would be killed, including women and children, and hoped that the violence would drive the remaining population to flee to Gaza, Lebanon, and Jordan.
Two days after the indictment, two of Israel’s largest news outlets, Mako and N12, published the story on Instagram. I examined 2,482 comments and replies on Mako’s post, along with 62 visible top-level comments (those responding directly to the post, rather than to another commenter) on N12’s post, and found two distinct but equally troubling responses.
On Mako, roughly half of the top-level comments praised or justified Nevo’s actions, accounting for around 70 percent of the total likes. The most popular suggested that he should be honored at Israel’s annual Independence Day ceremony, attracting more than 5,000 likes.
On N12, outright praise was less common, but comments questioning the allegations, attacking the Israeli media for reporting the story, or accusing authorities of treating Jewish suspects more harshly than Palestinian attackers attracted far more support than those condemning the plot.