For Meir Baruchin, the air in Israel has become stifling. The 60-year-old, who recently returned from an eight-day hike in Scandinavia, where he was trying to "go out of the country to breathe some fresh air," still receives many insulting messages and violent threats on social media. "Anonymous messages wishes for me and my children to die," described this philosophy and civics teacher at a high school in Petah Tikva, east of Tel Aviv, as he sat in the living room of his south Jerusalem apartment in early August. For almost ten months now, this teacher has been under investigation for "public disturbance" and "intent to betray the State of Israel" after publishing two short texts on Facebook in October 2023 condemning the death of Palestinian civilians killed in Israeli army strikes on the Gaza Strip, carried out in retaliation for Hamas' attack on Israeli territory.
Despite a prosecutor's decision not to indict him, the Jerusalem police have not dropped the charges against him. "They keep the case open to harass me," said the political scientist and American history graduate. In addition to this intense legal pressure, Baruchin, who initially lost his job before being reinstated in the same position at the beginning of the year, just received his new timetable and is preparing his classes for the start of the new school year, which he pointed out with a faint smile as if to underline the absurdity of the situation. "When I'll look back at my career, those past months will be the best civic class I'll have ever given."
His story, which began with a simple Facebook post on October 8, 2023, 24 hours after the Hamas massacres in which over 1,000 people were murdered, has become a symbol of Israel's ferocious attacks on freedom of speech. In two public posts, accompanied by a photo of Palestinian children killed in the Israeli army's massive bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Baruchin urged his government to "stop this madness." Dozens of people, including some of his high school colleagues, were incensed by what they considered his overly critical remarks.
On October 18, the teacher, known for his strong left-wing political views, was summoned to appear before the disciplinary board of the high school where he had been teaching for the past ten years. On the sole basis of a handful of sentences published online, Baruchin was dismissed the very next day. His superiors immediately filed a complaint. The police searched and "ransacked" his apartment in early November, looking for evidence of "sedition" in his archives and electronic devices, all of which were confiscated. In a video filmed shortly after the search and viewed by Le Monde, his belongings can be seen strewn across the floor of his home.
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