Picture the scene: a 62-year-old high school teacher walks into the school grounds one day and is met by a pre-meditated protest from students who are refusing to attend his class. “Son of a bitch!” one student screams at him. “Cancer!” cries another. “Whore!” shouts a third, while more students spit on the ground in front of him.
This was the greeting Meir Baruchin received on Jan. 19 — the day he was reinstated at the Yitzhak Shamir High School in the central Israeli city of Petah Tivkah after having been fired, arrested, and jailed for four days in solitary confinement at a high security prison. His offense? Two Facebook posts on Oct. 8 — the day after Hamas-led militants massacred over 1,100 people in southern Israel, and Israel began its bombardment of the Gaza Strip — in which he shared a photo of Palestinian children who were killed in an Israeli airstrike and pleaded to “stop this madness,” and warned about rising bloodshed in the West Bank.
In a hearing 10 days later at the Petah Tikvah Municipality, which employs all of the city’s public school teachers, Baruchin was accused of “condemning IDF soldiers, denouncing the State of Israel, and supporting terrorist acts,” and dismissed from his position. Seeking further punishment, the Municipality also filed a complaint with police about Baruchin’s conduct, and he was arrested less than a month later on suspicion of “revealing intent to betray the country.”