Tel Aviv University lecturer Dr. Yolanda Yavor, who was arrested last Thursday on suspicion of inciting violence against the Prime Minister for social media posts she uploaded, has declared a hunger strike while being held at the Kishon Detention Facility.
Yavor was arrested during the weekend, and after 24 hours, the police requested that her detention be extended. Since then, the court extended her detention an additional time, yet an indictment has still not been filed.
At the start of her remand hearing on Saturday, Yavor said: "People like Mordechai David threaten protesters, and block their path and curse at them, and everything's fine. But I have been kept in detention for two days, Heil Bibi!"
In the post that Dr. Yavor published online, which led to her arrest, she wrote: “The only choice before us is to be - meaning: to fight the traitor, the mouthpieces, the damned collaborators, and his ragtag Freikorps militias with full force and by all means - or to cease. Choose correctly, my brothers and sisters. There won’t be another round. We said ‘democracy or rebellion,’ remember? So, let’s go - rebellion. But a real one, imported from Romania, not an AliExpress‑Kaplan corner edition.”
She also wrote: “You don’t topple a dictatorship at the ballot box,” “Netanyahu is a traitor,” and “We’re coming to get you.”
In her decision Saturday, the judge wrote that "there is indeed suspicion of a call for violence." She noted that Yavor cooperated in the investigation, and even though she believed her words did not express a direct incitement to violence, she concluded that there was a basis for detention due to the danger posed, and to a lesser extent, concerns about obstruction of justice.
The Im Tirzu Movement, which submitted the report to the police against Yavor, commented on the hunger strike: "Mrs. Yavor must sit behind bars. The 'celebrity discount' given to her because she's an anarchist from the 'correct' side of the political spectrum must end. There is no reason to be excited by her hunger games or statements and show. In the past, she was nicknamed the 'champion of detention,' no? Yolanda incited; now she should deal with the consequences."