Israel has detained and suspended a history teacher for speaking out against the regime’s war on Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip and referring to them as “child killers.”
The Israeli police said in a statement that the teacher “legitimized” the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas Operation Al-Aqsa Storm.
“A high school teacher was detained and suspended from his job on the grounds that he accused Israeli soldiers of raping Palestinian women and legitimized the attacks of Hamas on October 7,” the statement said.
The history teacher described Israeli soldiers as “child killers,” the police said, without providing the teacher’s name or school.
It added that the teacher “aided the enemy in wartime with fabricated allegations.”
The regime’s police took the teacher in for questioning due to a complaint filed by Israel’s Ministry of Education against him, which also led to the teacher’s suspension from the school.
In one of his posts, the high school teacher stated, “Didn’t Israeli soldiers rape Palestinian women? They have been doing this since 1948, but it is not in the textbooks.”
“It is permissible for an occupied people to do whatever is necessary to succeed in their struggle,” the teacher wrote in a WhatsApp channel, Israeli media reported on Friday.
The teacher had previously shared posts criticizing Israel’s violations in the occupied West Bank as well as Gaza.
In response to Israeli police killing two Palestinians, ages 14 and 24, the teacher wrote, “Today, the bloodbath continues in the West Bank.”
Meanwhile, a crowd gathered in front of the District Court in West Jerusalem to protest the Israeli action against the teacher and to show their support for him. However, Israeli police later dispersed the crowd.
More than 11,000 Palestinians, including 4,506 children, have been killed, and 27,490 others injured since the regime launched the war on Gaza after Hamas launched its operation in response to the Israeli regime’s decades-long campaign atrocities against Palestinians.
Since the start of Israel’s aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip last month, the West Bank has seen a rise in violence from Israeli forces and settlers that claimed the lives of more than 180 Palestinians.
Israel has also intensified its arrest campaigns in the West Bank, detaining more than 2,000 people since October 7, including at least 49 women and 17 journalists.
