4 weeks ago
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TEL AVIV: As the war in Gaza drags on and the death toll mounts, fear is growing within a small sector of Israeli society opposed to the official stance on the Palestinian issue.
In a country that is often referred to as the only democracy in the Middle East, those who dare to share their views have found that freedom of speech can come at a heavy cost.
Among them is 62-year-old history and civics teacher Meir Baruchin. After Mr Baruchin posted on Facebook about Palestinian casualties in Gaza, some of his students spat and screamed at him, and told him to die. Their actions were captured by bystanders in a video.
“For most Israelis, the Palestinians are nothing more than a vague image. They have no name, no face, no family, no hope. So, I’m trying to humanise the Palestinians,” he told CNA.
Mr Baruchin was subsequently dismissed from his position after the Jerusalem municipality filed a complaint against his Facebook posts, which also criticised the Israeli military, and warned against wars of revenge, as reported by British newspaper The Guardian.
The teacher was then accused of sedition and incitement, and arrested.
“The general attorney said there’s no sedition and incitement in my Facebook posts, so the police decided to interrogate me for two other charges. One, committing an act of treason against the state of Israel and two, intention to disrupt public order,” he said.
“The minute I walked into the police station they cuffed my hands and legs.”
He said that his home was searched but nothing was found. However, he was questioned again, he said.
“The second part of the interrogation was not asking me questions, it was more of rhetoric. When you install the answer in the question, you don’t let the person choose their answer. Those were leading questions, they tried to put words in my mouth,” he said.
Mr Baruchin was then held in solitary confinement for four days and classified as a high-risk prisoner.
CONTINUING EDUCATION
When Mr Baruchin fought against his dismissal in court, his supporters rallied outside and were pushed and shoved by police.
He eventually won his unfair dismissal case and was allowed to return to school. He will continue to educate his students about the Palestinians, he said.
“Most students, ever since they are born, only get to hear one voice. They think the same way,” he said.
“You cannot have a democratic dialogue when everyone thinks the same way and only has one voice.”
The government has said that Israel remains the only democracy in the Middle East, as often touted by Israeli leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
However, a search for interviewees by CNA found that many do not want to share views critical of the government out of fear of reprisal. Their fear appears not to be unfounded.
In February, the documentary “No Other Land’ , an Israeli-Palestinian co-production on the expulsion of Palestinians from their villages by Israel won the best documentary award at the Berlin Film Festival.
In his acceptance speech, its Israeli creator spoke out about inequality between Israelis and Palestinians. He was criticised for those comments and said he has even received death threats.
CRITICISM AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT
Peace activist in Israel Yariv Oppenheimer believes the Israeli public is often only given only one narrative – the official one – when it comes to coverage of the war in Gaza and army operations in the West Bank.
“People don’t know about (the situation), they don’t care much about it and when someone shows them in the mirror the ugly face of the occupation, they prefer to break the mirror than to look at it and say we have to fix it,” said Mr Oppenheimer, head of the Geneva Initiative’s Two-State Coalition, which brings together more than 20 influential Palestinian and Israeli civil society organisations that support and promote the two-state solution.
The Israeli government has denied clamping down on those not toeing the official line.
"Every person you're going to speak to in Israel will tell you that we are committed to freedom of speech, freedom of press, so (the clamp down) is not something I'm familiar with," said Ms Tal Heinrich, spokesperson for Mr Netanyahu.
On Oct 7, Hamas militants abducted about 240 people – including foreigners from at least 25 countries – during their surprise rampage into Israel that killed 1,200 people.
Israel's military has waged a retaliatory offensive against Hamas that has killed more than 30,000 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.
Mr Oppenheimer said the Israeli government is taking advantage of the war to annex more Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, which will make it increasingly impossible to have a future peace agreement with the Palestinians.
Israel last month declared 800 hectares in the West Bank as state land for settlement building, in a move condemned by Palestinian authorities.
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