We are disheartened to learn that UD Hillel will be hosting Golan Vach, an IDF soldier, here on campus. Vach has been invited on campus on March 6th to give “An insider’s perspective on Oct. 7”, to establish “What really happened? Where do we go from here?”

While we understand that Hillel has a freedom to host guest speakers, Vach is not a credible speaker and has, in the past, spread misinformation about what unfolded on Oct. 7th leading to an increase in anti-Palestinian hate.

Particularly, he claimed that during the rescue operations in Kibbutz Be’eri he saw decapitated babies. He told Israeli media that “The baby was decapitated. I carried the baby with my own hands”.
 
He then got on a call “with a group of international journalists” and said that he had “found one baby with his head cut.” Among those on the call were The New York Times, NBC News, AFP and CBS who all published his claims giving way to other outlets such as NPR, France24 and CBS to further publish this misinformation.

Notably, as Ahmed El-Din reports, while on the call Vach “[dodged] any questions about evidence and told journalists he can’t share the photo. Then that he would later. Then said there is no photo. All on [the] same call.”

By Oct. 12th, “Did Hamas kill babies” had the biggest uptick in Google searches- greater than anything else related to the war on Gaza at that time. And of all the media platforms disseminating claims of the beheading I24News- the aforementioned Israeli media outlet that featured Vach’s claim that he  “carried the baby with his own hands” was the main propagator of this misinformation.

While this false claim about the beheaded babies has been debunked (neither the Occupation’s official spokesperson nor the White House could not confirm such reports), the damage had been done. This false claim fueled the anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab,anti-Muslim hate crimes nationwide including the stabbing of a 6 year old Palestinian child in Illinois.

Because the event on March 6th is about trying to establish “what really happened on Oct. 7th” and because Golan Vach repeatedly, and seemingly knowingly, spread misinformation about what actually happened on Oct. 7th, we are concerned that the event will give Vach a platform to spread more misinformation regarding the events of Oct. 7th. We are concerned that his proclivity for misinformation will spark yet another wave of anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian sentiment here on campus.