Is this anti-semitism?

Having reflected on it, I’m not even sure that person should lose their job based on those tweets alone, if they regret them. But maybe it would be good to have them get some kind of training about historical antisemitism, the kinds of imagery and slurs and theories used, etc?

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Friday, November 3, 2023 5:49 AM (two hours ago)

don't think there's any public evidence of her disavowing or apologizing for those tweets, but I agree that sincere regret would make a big difference. Ilhan Omar is someone who used anti-semitic tropes in tweets before she was in congress, and did the work of understanding and explaining the problem with the language she used.

absent any regret from A. Johnson, I am OK with her losing her job. My concern is that she'll be the victim of a campaign of harassment and death threats because of her old tweets being un-earthed in this current climate.

As with most cases, I would rather that if she lost her job it was because the students she had dealings with were upset about the tweets, rather than some outside group directing a campaign to get her fired.

I think it was both.

There's an article where she recaps the incident, apparently without remorse.

https://dailynorthwestern.com/2023/03/02/featured-stories/in-focus/community-members-say-northwestern-is-neither-a-safe-nor-free-space-for-conversations-about-palestine-and-israel/

Agree, an apology and acknowledgement can lead to moving on. Don't think she needs to be banned from all jobs. But when the job is some sort of role model for college students, hard to see how to stop perpetuating cycles of hatred otherwise.

Aneesa Johnson (Communication ʼ18), said the University’s reactions to individual students expressing their views has hindered open conversation.

Johnson, who is Palestinian, said that while at NU, she was reported to the University for bias and hate after she posted tweets criticizing Zionism.

kinda buries the actual anti-semitism doesn't it

Yes

my wife's uncle (recently retired) was a Northwestern professor who survived the holocaust and i'm glad he probably never had her as a student.

that's an interesting article, thanks for sharing it.

Johnson, who is Palestinian, said that while at NU, she was reported to the University for bias and hate after she posted tweets criticizing Zionism.

lol come on now

The article happens to go into detail about the effects of the doxxing site:

Several students who are critical of Israel also consistently identified Canary Mission as making it more difficult for them to speak out. Canary Mission is an anonymous online blacklist that compiles public dossiers of student activists and organizations it deems to be anti-Israel or antisemitic.

According to reports from media outlets The Forward and The Times of Israel, the Israeli government has used Canary Mission’s blacklist to deny visitors entry at its borders.

“Canary Mission is literally the thing that stops me the most when speaking up,” Ava said.

Ava is stateless — her family grew up in Palestinian refugee camps — and she hopes to someday attain U.S. citizenship. She said she worries being blacklisted on Canary Mission would make it more difficult for her to get a job and, eventually, U.S. citizenship.

As a result of this fear, Ava said she never joined SJP during her time at NU. George said many Palestinian students he knows have avoided becoming involved with SJP for this same reason.

Charles*, a Palestinian American student, said he’s been having conversations with his family for at least 10 years about precautions to avoid being blacklisted on Canary Mission.

“If it’s out there and attached to my name that I’m critical of the Israeli government,” he said, “that can be preventative to me being able to go back to where my people are from, and where I have family and connecting (with) what I consider my homeland.”

I really hate this persecution taking place in the name of fighting anti-semitism

xps!

Yes antisemitism and other hate amd microaggressions wrapped up in the First Amendment is a blurry line that many lawyers spent their whole careers trying to delineate. Usually it's passive aggressive subtle dogwhistling but these overt examples are on the rise.

More consequences:

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/02/business/law-firms-antisemitism-universities/index.html

The law firms' letter's definition of antisemitism includes

Over the last several weeks, we have been alarmed at reports of anti-Semitic harassment, vandalism and assaults on college campuses, including rallies calling for the death of Jews and the elimination of the State of Israel.

I saw the video of the two people eating bagels in Montclair NJ that had just removed one of the posters from a wall, and were being asked why they had taken it down. Its unfortunate that the person asking them is basically harassing them so its not a surprise they don't want to answer.

I feel like this kind of thing would be better approached in the way the 1420 guy does in Russia when asking about the SMO and related topics.

I did feel these two maybe weren't really able to explain their rationale, but I think there's something else going on underneath that isn't anti-semitism, but it could become so. I think sometimes we think of these things as inherent, when often its something that can develop

At the same time, as with the above two it may also be a form of group dynamics and not necessarily something thought out or explainable, and that these dynamics can continue even when not in the group situation

New thread:

Anti-semitism thread: onwards from 2023