Olmert: Israel will not fund institutions that discriminate against former IDF officers

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday responded to opposition to the appointment by Tel Aviv University of an Israel Defense Forces Colonel Pnina Sharvit-Baruch to its law faculty, saying Israel will no longer support institutions that discriminate against IDF officers because of their military service.

"In my opinion, any university that takes part in the disqualification of lecturers on such grounds before an examination [of their service] has finished, will be an institution not suitable for funding from the Israeli government."

Olmert dismissed the protestors who opposed her appointment as "a number of self-righteous, sanctimonious, arrogant hypocrites that chose to make an exception out of the military service of the IDF Advocacy General without determining if she is guilty [of crimes]."

The objections came in the wake of a recent story published in Haaretz about Sharvit-Baruch, who heads the IDF international law division.

The report said that under Sharvit-Baruch's command, IDF legal experts legitimized strikes involving Gaza civilians, including the bombardment of the Gaza police course closing ceremony.

Sharvit-Baruch is planning on retiring from the army in the coming months and is scheduled to teach at the university's law department next semester.