On Sunday, however, local news site Beersheba Net reported that the teacher training college would appeal the ruling.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe college respects the values of freedom of expression and academia, but believes that limits must be imposed when serious things are said about IDF soldiers, while a terrible massacre is taking place, among the victims of which were faculty members and students of the college,\u201d it said in a statement carried by the media outlet.<\/p>\n
The college claimed in its statement that it had rushed to fire Sada without first pursuing other avenues due to the \u201cnational emergency\u201d that had engulfed Israel, and because there were no preexisting protocols for how to approach \u201csuch a serious case.\u201d<\/p>\n
It claimed that during Sada\u2019s disciplinary hearing, the lecturer had declined to withdraw her statements and refused to condemn Hamas as a terror organization.<\/p>\n
Varda was fired from her job as a lecturer because of a social media post in solidarity with the children of Gaza and against the war.<\/p>\n
Political persecution of Palestinian citizens of Israel has been running rampant since the start of the war, and the attempts to silence\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/3B0p3fxOrR<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 \u05e2\u05d5\u05de\u05d3\u05d9\u05dd \u05d1\u05d9\u05d7\u05d3 \u0646\u0642\u0641 \u0645\u0639\u064b\u0627 Standing Together???? (@omdimbeyachad) December 12, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n Among Sada\u2019s posts was one that, according to Haaretz, portrayed the October 7 onslaught, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage, as an act in which \u201cthe occupied rise up against ongoing cruelty and daily acts of murder.\u201d\n<\/p>\n Other posts called the IDF a \u201cterrorist army,\u201d the Walla news outlet reported, and urged Israelis to refuse to enlist in the military.<\/p>\n Sada later claimed to Haaretz that she had been unaware of the scope of the Hamas attack when she uploaded the posts.<\/p>\n The court, in its ruling, said the college had not taken Sada\u2019s explanation into consideration.<\/p>\n Although the Beersheba Labor Court ultimately ruled in Sada\u2019s favor, it criticized her for failing to take responsibility for her actions and only granted her a portion of the compensation package she had sued for \u2014 the equivalent of eight months of lost salary, rather than the two years she had requested, as well as NIS 50,000 for mental distress and damages and NIS 20,000 in legal fees.<\/p>\n \u201cLike the college, which dug its heels in, the plaintiff also displayed no sensitivity and did not take responsibility for the mistakes she made,\u201d the ruling read.<\/p>\n Sada\u2019s case was one of several instances in which educators in Israel came under fire \u2014 and in some cases<\/a> were arrested \u2014 for statements deemed to be supportive of Hamas or critical of Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza during the two-year war in the enclave.<\/p>\n In November 2024, the Knesset passed a law<\/a> allowing the Education Ministry to fire teachers who publicly identify with an act of terrorism, drawing immediate condemnation from human rights advocates who petitioned the High Court of Justice over the bill.<\/p>\n In January, the court ordered the state to justify why the law shouldn\u2019t be repealed, giving it until the end of April to respond.<\/p>\n
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