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Newspaper Covers for Israeli Who Was Arrested for Allegedly Justifying Hamas Rapes

Partygoers at the Supernova Psy-Trance Festival who filmed the events that unfolded on Oct. 7, 2023. Photo: Yes Studios

Just a week after criticizing the entire Israeli media for emphasizing Israel’s pain following the October 7 Hamas attack and not emphasizing Palestinian suffering in the Gaza Strip, journalists Emma Graham-Harrison and Quique Kierszenbaum have followed up with another skewed article published in The Guardian’s sister newspaper, The Observer.

Headlined, “‘It is a time of witch hunts in Israel’: teacher held in solitary confinement for posting concern about Gaza deaths,” the piece focuses primarily on Meir Baruchin, who, readers are told in the subheading, was “fired and jailed for criticising the military.” The article claims that “many who agree with him are afraid to go public.”

The piece explains that the “grey-haired, softly spoken history and civics teacher” was placed in solitary confinement in a Jerusalem jail in early November after he was charged with intent to commit treason over what Graham-Harrison and Kierszenbaum describe vaguely as a “series of Facebook posts he’d made, mourning the civilians killed in Gaza, criticising the Israeli military, and warning against wars of revenge.”

Indeed, just one message that Baruchin posted online on October 8 — as the scale of the unprovoked massacre of Israeli civilians was clear — is reprinted in the article:

“Horrific images are pouring in from Gaza. Entire families were wiped out. I don’t usually upload pictures like this, but look what we do in revenge,” said a message on 8 October, below a picture of the family of Abu Daqqa, killed in one of the first airstrikes on Gaza. “Anyone who thinks this is justified because of what happened yesterday, should unfriend themselves. I ask everyone else to do everything possible to stop this madness. Stop it now. Not later, Now!!!”

What readers are not told, however, is about the other comments Baruchin allegedly posted online that dark day in October.

Among other things, Baruchin is said to have justified Hamas terrorists raping Israeli women and also accused the IDF of perpetrating sexual attacks against Palestinian women ever since the State of Israel was established.

Had Graham-Harrison and Kierszenbaum reprinted the alleged posts, the fact that Baruchin was initially arrested for incitement would have at least made some sense.

The piece later says that — despite what’s stated in the headline — Baruchin is technically no longer working as a teacher after making what they call “similar criticism at a less volatile time” that led to his sacking from a school in Rishon LeZion three years ago.

But again, the actual contents of Baruchin’s incendiary posts are glossed over: readers are not told that in January 2020 following a terrorist attack, he uploaded a photo of the Palestinian terrorist and “eulogized him and described his deeds as acts of desperation,” according to Adnan Zada, the Israel Police representative.

In another post written in the aftermath of a car-ramming, Baruchin allegedly said the attacker could not be called a “terrorist.”

Finally, the circumstances surrounding his job are incorrectly stated in the Observer piece, which states that Baruchin has an employment tribunal hearing this month because, under Israeli law, municipal authorities have “no right to fire a teacher whose performance has always been excellent.”

Going back to reports from three years ago, it is clear that Baruchin was not simply fired for expressing his personal opinions.

What actually happened was that Baruchin described the IDF as “murderers,” and he was called into a meeting with the school principal, Dr. Sophie Ben Artzi, who told him his comments were not appropriate. “I asked him into my office and just said that I am not prepared for him to call IDF soldiers murderers. He said that he will call them whatever he wants and I responded with ‘meeting over,’” she explained about the incident.

Yet, full details of the allegations that led to Baruchin’s arrest aren’t the only thing absent from this Observer feature.

The case of another teacher, Yael Ayalon, the head of a Tel Aviv high school, is also briefly touched upon, with readers told that she was summoned by authorities after sharing an article by Haaretz that claimed the Israeli media is hiding how Gazan civilians are being impacted by the war:

Her students rioted in the school after news of the post spread; she took her employers to a tribunal and was reinstated, but when she returned to school she was attacked again by students chanting ‘go home’. She declined to speak to the Observer.

But in an ironic twist, it is Haaretz that went into the circumstances of the case, with sources telling the publication that Ayalon was summoned to the hearing “due to her problematic conduct, which also includes various administrative issues, and not due to her Facebook posting.”

Graham-Harrison and Kierszenbaum’s latest feature is a masterclass on how to spin the truth.

One can agree or disagree with Baruchin’s treatment by Israeli authorities, but it is clear that Graham-Harrison and Kierszenbaum have told only half the story in an attempt to portray Israel as being in the grip of McCarthyism when it comes to criticism of its military and the current war against Hamas.

While Meir Baruchin may benefit from this bias, hopefully, some readers will Google his name and read the full story.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

The post Newspaper Covers for Israeli Who Was Arrested for Allegedly Justifying Hamas Rapes first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.

Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.

“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”

GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’

Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.

“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.

“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.

“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.

After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”

RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL

Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”

Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.

“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.

She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”

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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.

People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.

“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”

Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.

On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.

Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.

On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.

“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.

Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.

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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas

Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.

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