Anti-government activist expected to be charged with incitement to terror — report

An anti-government activist is expected to be indicted on charges of incitement to terror in the coming days, Channel 13 reported Saturday, over social media posts allegedly inciting violence against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and others.

Yolanda Yavor, a lecturer at Tel Aviv University, was arrested in November for Facebook posts that called, among other things, for the people to launch a “real rebellion” against the “traitor” Netanyahu.

She referenced, in her call for a “real” uprising, the Romanian revolution of 1989, which led to the execution of the Romanian Communist Party leader Nicolae Ceaușescu.

According to Channel 13, Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara and State Attorney Amit Aisman have decided that, pending a hearing, Yavor will stand trial on charges of incitement to terror.

The decision has sparked criticism, however, with an unnamed source close to Yavor telling Channel 13 that Netanyahu’s Likud party “exerted pressure” on Baharav-Miara and Aisman to put her on trial.

Yavor’s attorney, Oshrat Kirma, accused the legal officials of pushing the case through immediately following a request from Likud to expedite the process.

“There is no doubt that the motives here are political,” she said in remarks carried by Channel 13.

Yavor, in the Facebook post that sparked her arrest, wrote: “The only choice is to be — that is, to fight the traitor, the mouthpieces, the damned collaborators and his bargain-bin Freikorps militias with all the strength and all means — or not to be.”

“Make the right choice, my brothers and sisters,” she said. “There won’t be another round.”

“We said ‘Democracy or rebellion,’ remember?” she added, referencing a popular chant at pro-democracy protests. “So rebellion it is. But a real one, like one imported from Romania, not AliExpress-meets-Kaplan.”

She hashtagged “Dictators are not overthrown at the ballot box,” “Netanyahu is a traitor,” and “We’re coming for you.”

A lecturer in TAU’s Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Yavor was previously arrested for allegedly inciting against Netanyahu in September.

At the time, she shared a video of the torching of the home of the Nepali prime minister and wrote a message encouraging such an act against Netanyahu. A judge suggested Yavor remove the post, to which she agreed, and she was sent to house arrest for several days under restrictive conditions.