What’s it like for an Israeli Jew to express sympathy for Palestinians?

Barchuin was charged by police with sedition and incitement to terrorism over a Facebook post

Péter Csuth/Majalla

Israeli teacher Meir Baruchin was fired, jailed and spat at by students for criticising Israel's military conduct in Gaza.

What’s it like for an Israeli Jew to express sympathy for Palestinians?

Ahmed Maher

last update on 08 Feb 2024

An Israeli schoolteacher says his country is committing war crimes against innocent civilians in Gaza in response to the 7 October attacks last year when Hamas militants rampaged through civilian communities in southern Israel.

Meir Baruchin — who has been teaching history in Israeli schools for 35 years — expressed his sympathy for Palestinian civilians in Gaza in a public social media post one day after the attacks.

As he watched entire residential areas in Gaza being decimated, entire families killed, and vital infrastructure reduced to smoking piles of rubble after Israeli air strikes, he took to Facebook to express his appalment.

Commenting on a picture of dead five toddlers and children in Gaza, he wrote on 8 October: “Horrific images from Gaza. I don’t usually post pictures like this, but look what we do in revenge. Anyone who thinks this is justified because of what happened yesterday (7 October) should unfriend themselves.”

The post sparked a huge backlash, and his life has turned upside down since then. He has been cursed at by Israelis who spew racist vitriol against Palestinians.

In Israel, showing empathy and compassion towards the Palestinians after the 7 October attacks by Hamas can hurt you both socially and economically, says Baruchin.

Israeli authorities have warned against what it calls “incitement” on public social media posts as the country is in a state of war.

Baruchin, 62, says he’s trying to give the victims in Gaza names and faces so more Jews in Israel would be able to see them as human beings.

In an interview with Al Majalla remotely from his house in Jerusalem, Baruchin said: “For many Israeli Jews, Palestinians are no more than a vague image. If you say Palestinian, they automatically hear terrorists.”

“They have no name, face, family, hope, or plans. Most Israelis think that the life of a Palestinian is meaningless. It has no importance. So, what I'm trying to do on my Facebook is to humanise them.

“The Israeli mainstream media is also cooperating with this trend. They don't present the Palestinians as human beings. They present them only as terrorists. So that's the only voice most Israelis hear or see, and I'm trying to do otherwise.”

For many Israeli Jews, Palestinians are no more than a vague image. If you say Palestinian, they automatically hear terrorists.

The cost of sympathy

The cost Baruchin paid was high. On 18 October, he was summoned by the police for interrogation over his post.

The following day, he was fired by his school in the city of Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv. The Ministry of Education also suspended his teaching license.

Two weeks later, Baruchin was interrogated by police on charges of "sedition and incitement to terrorism", but the Attorney General ruled that there was nothing in his post that solicited violence.

The police changed the charges afterwards to "intention of committing an act of treason and disrupt public order," Baruchin says.

AFP — Palestinians flee the city of Khan Younis in Gaza.

"The minute I walked into the police station, they confiscated my phone and cuffed my hands and legs. Five detectives escorted me to my apartment and ransacked the entire place," he says.

"I was then taken back to the police station for an interrogation that lasted for hours. During the first part of the interrogation, they came up with 14 Facebook posts; only two were after 7 October. I was categorised as a high-risk detainee and taken to jail in the Moscovia Detention Centre in Jerusalem and put in solitary confinement."

Barchuin was charged by police with sedition and incitement to terrorism.

On 14 January, Baruchin won his court case against the Ministry of Education and was reinstated in his job. He received a rowdy reception when he first came to school.

"The first day I came to school was January 19. Dozens of students protested against my comeback. They knocked on the windows of the teachers' room, cursed and spat at me," said Baruchin, who holds a PhD in American history from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His dissertation focused on the war powers in the American political system.

Baruchin was dumbstruck when only five of 80 teachers at his school supported him. He felt lonely and isolated. Not only was he fired from his job, but angry protesters nearly assaulted him at his school.

But is he alone feeling this way? Hardly.

Fear of backlash

"There are Israelis who share with me what they can't share publicly, fearing public backlash. They are afraid to speak up. They don't want to lose their jobs," he explains.

"I get hundreds of responses saying, Meir, I'm fully behind you. But I have children to support. Meir, I'm with you, but I'm paying a mortgage. Meir, I'm with you, but my daughter is getting married. Meir, I'm with you, but we just started redecorating the house."

The whole experience has impacted how Baruchin navigates his life. He felt humiliated, and, to this day, he can't fully understand why he faced such backlash over a single post that falls under free speech and humanity.

His case is not an isolated one in Israeli society, especially after the Hamas attacks, and there is hard data to prove this.

Reuters — An Israeli mobile artillery unit fires towards Gaza.

The latest Peace Index survey from Tel Aviv University showed that 94% of Israeli Jews and 82% of the entire population in Israel think that the Israel Defence Forces used the right amount of firepower in the Gaza war, which killed and maimed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

Nearly 75% of the total population thinks that the harm done to the Palestinians was justified in order to defeat Hamas.

Another January poll by the Israel Democracy Institute found that 66% of the Israeli public rejected US pressure to shift the war in Gaza to a less intense phase.

These polls, says Baruchin, put a spotlight on a nationwide problem of how the Israelis perceive the other despite the collective trauma of 7 October, when 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians, were killed in the Hamas attacks, according to Israeli authorities.

More than 27,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, the majority being women and children, according to the Health authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

"I won't be sorry if Hamas disappears. But anyone in Israel who shows the slightest sentiment towards the people of Gaza and criticises the government and the IDF for killing innocent civilians knows that they will be politically persecuted. They will be publicly shamed," he said.

With big ideas about changing this world, Baruchin hopes to see the day when the Palestinians have their fundamental rights and their own state alongside Israel.

"I look at people as human beings, not as Arab or Israeli," he said.

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