The civics teacher threatened with dismissal after a student accused him of expressing “extreme left” opinions will not be fired after all, officials from the ORT education network decided following a second hearing on the matter on Thursday at its headquarters in Tel Aviv. Adam Verete, who teaches civics at the ORT school in Kiryat Tivon, was also accused by student Sapir Sabah of expressing views “against the state,” in a letter she wrote to Education Minister Shay Piron.
Protest in Kiryat Tivon in solidarity with Adam Verete: “ORT – a house of which values?” (Photo: Activestills)
Verete’s attorneys, Michael Sfard and Adar Grayevsky, were present at the hearing, along with the Education Ministry’s northern district supervisor and representatives of the ORT education network. At the end of the hearing, Verete urged teachers to continue expressing their opinions in class “as, the Education Ministry makes clear, substantial learning involves teachers expressing their opinions, in a pluralistic atmosphere in the classroom that respects all opinions.” Verete said teachers should not be afraid to express their opinions.
Verete’s father, Yoram Verete, told “Haaretz” that the family had received threats since the affair began. “It’s hard, we received threats on our lives and family,” Yoram Verete said. “His wife is pregnant, it’s not easy to stand up against this whole system, and he did so wonderfully. The feeling as a father is of great pride, on the one hand, and great worry on the other. It is a terrible burden and very tense.”
Ahead of Thursday’s hearing, Sfard sent ORT’s leadership a letter in which he noted that recent statements to the media by the director general of the ORT network, Zvi Peleg, in which he reiterated the claim that Verete said the IDF was not a moral army, “shows the clearly prejudiced opinion the director general holds with regard to the issues to be clarified at the hearing.” Sfard said Peleg may have made these statements because “he understands that there is nothing wrong with what Verete said in the class, and he is therefore disseminating a malicious version that will allow him to continue the political persecution he began.”
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