I can understand that. It is easy to go from "I don't know that" to "Ergo, it doesn't exist". But you don't have to believe me; just heed the cries of the families of hostages who have been loud and clear.
Canadians With A Conscience Denounce Zionist "McCarthyism"
- Thread starter niniveh
- Start date
The state cannot accept an “offer” that gives terrorists an incentive to take more hostages. Nobody negotiates with terrorists from the position of weakness. There can be no deals made that would make them happy. They only understand brute force and they should be spoken to in a language they understand. Israel has been doing those unequal exchanges and here’s the result.
Every state regurgitates such nonsense in their public pronouncements. Privately, they ALL negotiate for hostages.
Right, I'm sure you believe that. Sorry but Hamas has not offered to release all of their hostages. Why would they because they just went to the effort to kidnap those old ladies and infants.
Israel has always negotiated for the release of their people including negotiating for the remains of their people. At the same time, there is no way they will happily reward Hamas for kidnapping a bunch of civilians.
You do know this, its been posted every time you make the same claim.
In other words, it doesn't matter if there was an offer because Netanyahu had genocide on his mind.
In other words, it doesn't matter if there was an offer because Netanyahu had genocide on his mind.
It does make a big difference.
Only Trudeau and Biden back Israel now.
If we can get Trudeau to respect the law that will effect Biden.
And only Biden can stop Netanyahu now.
Harvard Professors Challenge Univ. Prez
Instead of confronting head-on the threats from billionaires to long held "University Values", President Gay folded cravenly.
Harvard Faculty Statement In Support of Academic Freedom
Academic Freedom Faculty Statement
·
Follow
6 min read
·
3 days ago
7.9K
34
https://medium.com/plans?dimension=...udio_button----------------------------------
Dear President Gay:
As Harvard faculty, we have been astonished by the pressure from donors, alumni, and even some on this campus to silence faculty, students, and staff critical of the actions of the State of Israel. It is important to acknowledge the patronizing tone and format of much of the criticism you have received as well as the outright racism contained in some of it.
We were nevertheless profoundly dismayed by your November 9 message entitled “Combating Antisemitism.” The University's commitment to intellectual freedom and open dialogue seems to be giving way to something else entirely: a model of education in which the meaning of terms once eligible for interpretation is prescribed from above by a committee whose work was, on Tuesday, described to the faculty as only beginning.
There should surely be limits to what is speakable, even in a university. Saying things that are plainly untrue – denying the Holocaust, for example – merits condemnation. Derogating other members of the community in racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic language merits condemnation.
There must, however, be room on a university campus for debate about the actions of states, including of the State of Israel. It cannot be ruled as ipso facto antisemitic to question the actions of this particular ethno-nationalist government any more than it would be ipso facto racist to question the actions of Robert Mugabe's ethno-nationalist government in Zimbabwe. Nor can arguments that characterize Israel as an “apartheid" state or its recent actions as “ethnic cleansing” or even “genocide” be considered automatically antisemitic, regardless of whether one concurs with such arguments. The University’s recently-announced “Discrimination and Bullying Policies and Procedures,” it is useful to remember, includes “political belief” (and thus presumably its expression) as a protected category.
It is understandable that in the shadow of the twentieth-century history of Europe, Palestine, and Israel, as well as the attacks of October 7 and the ongoing catastrophe in Gaza, you would want to remind members of our community that their words have meaning. And yet, at a moment when an affiliate of the University has with apparent impunity stood in the yard and accused students of supporting terrorism, your delineation of the limits of acceptable expression on our campus is dangerously one-sided.
Similarly, the phrase "from the river to the sea, Palestine must be free" has a long and complicated history. Its interpretation deserves, and is receiving, sustained and ongoing inquiry and debate. Singling it out as necessarily implying removalism or even eliminationism – when over a million Palestinians have been forced from their homes and over ten thousand civilians, including four thousand children, have been slain in Gaza, actions which the Holocaust historian Omer Bartov suggests in the New York Times may amount to a “crime against humanity” being executed with “genocidal intent” – is imprudent as a matter of university policy and badly misjudged as an act of moral leadership.
We call on you to present a balanced commitment to the support of intellectual freedom at Harvard by taking the following steps:
- Resisting calls to suspend and/or decertify the Palestine Solidarity Committee in retaliation for its public statements and advocacy, and resisting calls to set aside the University’s normal disciplinary procedures to prematurely sanction students and employees because of concerns raised about their political activity absent specific allegations of wrongdoing (and those already thusly sanctioned must be reinstated pending a procedurally sound investigation);
- Directing the President’s Advisory Group on Antisemitism to explain its definition of antisemitism to the University community, as requested at the FAS faculty meeting of November 7, before recommending any policies touching upon the freedom of thought and expression on our campus;
- Explicitly and specifically affirming the University’s commitment to the freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression in light of the extraordinary pressure being brought to bear upon critics of the State of Israel and advocates of the Palestinian people, and indicating that there can be no tolerance for a “Palestine exception” to free speech;
- Creating an advisory group on Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism (as suggested at the FAS faculty meeting of November 7).
- Walter Johnson, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Kirsten Weld, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Vijay Iyer, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Deidre Lynch, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Nikolas Bowie, Harvard Law School
- Diane Moore, Harvard Divinity School
- Namwali Serpell, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Harvard Kennedy School
- Sidney Chalhoub, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Christopher Hasty, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Salma Abu Ayyash, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Jesse B. Bump, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Ryan D. Doerfler, Harvard Law School
- Atalia Omer, Harvard Divinity School
- Bram Wispelwey, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School
- Sara Roy, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Neel Mukherjee, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Margareta Matache, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Soham Patel, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- John Womack, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Musa Syeed, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Jacinda Tran, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Vincent Brown, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Adhy Kim, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Richard Thomas, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Lara Jirmanus, Harvard Medical School
- Altaf Saadi, Harvard Medical School
- Hibah Osman, Harvard Medical School
- Lisa Thompson, Harvard School of Dental Medicine
- Khameer Kidia, Harvard Medical School
- Mary T Bassett, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Sawsan Abdulrahim, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Cemal Kafadar, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Lauren Kaminsky, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Amy Hollywood, Harvard Divinity School
- Malak Rafla, Harvard Medical School
- Bassima Abdallah, Harvard Medical School
- Alejandra Caraballo, Harvard Law School
- Eleanor Craig, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Matylda Figlerowicz, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Adam Haber, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Tara K. Menon, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Arunabh Ghosh, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Joel Suarez, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Karameh Kuemmerle, Harvard Medical School
- Sam Marks, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Rosie Bsheer, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Nader Uthman, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Glenda Carpio, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Adaner Usmani, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Paulina Alberto, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Sarah Darghouth, Harvard Medical School
- Alisa Khan, Harvard Medical School
- Patricia Stoeck, Harvard Medical School
- Hajirah Saeex, Harvard Medical School
- Sherar Andalcio, Harvard Medical School
- Diana L. Eck, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Gordon Schiff, Harvard Medical School
- Mahmoud Abu Hazeem, Harvard Medical School
- Rania El Fekih, Harvard Medical School
- Hicham Skali, Harvard Medical School
- Ramona Dvorak, Harvard Medical School
- Kamal Itani, Harvard Medical School
- Haytham Kaafarani, Harvard Medical School
- Ousmane Kane, Harvard Divinity School
- David U. Himmelstein, Harvard Medical School
- Joycelyn Ronda, Harvard Medical School
- Christian Williams, Harvard Law School
- Steffie Woodhandler, Harvard Medical School
- Ju Yon Kim, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- M. Amin Arnaout, Harvard Medical School
- Autumn Allen, Harvard Graduate School of Education
- Avik Chatterjee, Harvard Medical School
- Farhana Sharmeen, Harvard Medical School
- Duncan Kennedy, Harvard Law School
- Aisha James, Harvard Medical School
- Corey Hardin, Harvard Medical School
- Caroline Light, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Karen Huang, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- George Aumoithe, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Michelle Morse, Harvard Medical School
- Sadeq Rahimi, Harvard Medical School
- Sugata Bose, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Lorenzo Bondioli, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Michael Bronski, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- David Kennedy, Harvard Law School
- Christina Villarreal, Harvard Graduate School of Education
- Hilary Rantisi, Harvard Divinity School
- Kassem Safa, Harvard Medical School
- Huma Farid, Harvard Medical School
- Bernhard Nickel, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Amanda Raffoul, Harvard Medical School
- Martha Ann Selby, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Marshall Ganz, Harvard Kennedy School
- Amir Mohareb, Harvard Medical School
- Eman Ansari, Harvard Medical School
- Mohamed Jarraya, Harvard Medical School
- Liz McKenna, Harvard Kennedy School
- Maggie Doherty, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Hussein Rashid, Harvard Divinity School
- Juliana Morris, Harvard Medical School
- Sandra Smith, Harvard Kennedy School
- Kaia Stern, Harvard Graduate School of Education
- Nicholas Bloom, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Theodore Weatherwax, Harvard Medical School
- Rita Hamad, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Emmet von Stackelberg, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Areej Hassan, Harvard Medical School
- David Showalter, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Amina Elbendary, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Pedja Stojicic, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Ryan Enos, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Raif S. Geha, Harvard Medical School
- Chance Bonar, Harvard Divinity School
- Nikhil Mathews, Harvard Medical School
- Hesham Hamoda, Harvard Medical School
- Talal Chatila, Harvard Medical School
- Jennifer Leaning, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Gretchen Brion-Meisels, Harvard Graduate School of Education
You know that most of those civilians are children, right?
You're a cold blooded genocidal maniac.
you should be decrying the dangers of appeasing and trying to justify the murderous barbarism of Hamas. But then again apart from effectively holding Gaza hostage and building tunnels and Rockets instead of a country they only murder, rape, beheld Jews including babies the elderly the infirm.
This article is pretty shocking, with an Israeli government official saying the silent part out loud, claiming that unless US universities do what the Israeli government wants them to do, shut down Palestine protests, they will shut down funding.Harvard Professors Challenge Univ. Prez
Instead of confronting head-on the threats from billionaires to long held "University Values", President Gay folded cravenly.
Harvard Faculty Statement In Support of Academic Freedom
Academic Freedom Faculty Statement
·
Follow
6 min read
·
3 days ago
7.9K
34
https://medium.com/plans?dimension=...udio_button----------------------------------
Dear President Gay:
As Harvard faculty, we have been astonished by the pressure from donors, alumni, and even some on this campus to silence faculty, students, and staff critical of the actions of the State of Israel. It is important to acknowledge the patronizing tone and format of much of the criticism you have received as well as the outright racism contained in some of it.
We were nevertheless profoundly dismayed by your November 9 message entitled “Combating Antisemitism.” The University's commitment to intellectual freedom and open dialogue seems to be giving way to something else entirely: a model of education in which the meaning of terms once eligible for interpretation is prescribed from above by a committee whose work was, on Tuesday, described to the faculty as only beginning.
There should surely be limits to what is speakable, even in a university. Saying things that are plainly untrue – denying the Holocaust, for example – merits condemnation. Derogating other members of the community in racist, xenophobic, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic language merits condemnation.
There must, however, be room on a university campus for debate about the actions of states, including of the State of Israel. It cannot be ruled as ipso facto antisemitic to question the actions of this particular ethno-nationalist government any more than it would be ipso facto racist to question the actions of Robert Mugabe's ethno-nationalist government in Zimbabwe. Nor can arguments that characterize Israel as an “apartheid" state or its recent actions as “ethnic cleansing” or even “genocide” be considered automatically antisemitic, regardless of whether one concurs with such arguments. The University’s recently-announced “Discrimination and Bullying Policies and Procedures,” it is useful to remember, includes “political belief” (and thus presumably its expression) as a protected category.
It is understandable that in the shadow of the twentieth-century history of Europe, Palestine, and Israel, as well as the attacks of October 7 and the ongoing catastrophe in Gaza, you would want to remind members of our community that their words have meaning. And yet, at a moment when an affiliate of the University has with apparent impunity stood in the yard and accused students of supporting terrorism, your delineation of the limits of acceptable expression on our campus is dangerously one-sided.
Similarly, the phrase "from the river to the sea, Palestine must be free" has a long and complicated history. Its interpretation deserves, and is receiving, sustained and ongoing inquiry and debate. Singling it out as necessarily implying removalism or even eliminationism – when over a million Palestinians have been forced from their homes and over ten thousand civilians, including four thousand children, have been slain in Gaza, actions which the Holocaust historian Omer Bartov suggests in the New York Times may amount to a “crime against humanity” being executed with “genocidal intent” – is imprudent as a matter of university policy and badly misjudged as an act of moral leadership.
We call on you to present a balanced commitment to the support of intellectual freedom at Harvard by taking the following steps:
Sincerely,
- Resisting calls to suspend and/or decertify the Palestine Solidarity Committee in retaliation for its public statements and advocacy, and resisting calls to set aside the University’s normal disciplinary procedures to prematurely sanction students and employees because of concerns raised about their political activity absent specific allegations of wrongdoing (and those already thusly sanctioned must be reinstated pending a procedurally sound investigation);
- Directing the President’s Advisory Group on Antisemitism to explain its definition of antisemitism to the University community, as requested at the FAS faculty meeting of November 7, before recommending any policies touching upon the freedom of thought and expression on our campus;
- Explicitly and specifically affirming the University’s commitment to the freedom of thought, inquiry, and expression in light of the extraordinary pressure being brought to bear upon critics of the State of Israel and advocates of the Palestinian people, and indicating that there can be no tolerance for a “Palestine exception” to free speech;
- Creating an advisory group on Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism (as suggested at the FAS faculty meeting of November 7).
- Walter Johnson, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Kirsten Weld, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Vijay Iyer, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Deidre Lynch, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Nikolas Bowie, Harvard Law School
- Diane Moore, Harvard Divinity School
- Namwali Serpell, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Harvard Kennedy School
- Sidney Chalhoub, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Christopher Hasty, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Salma Abu Ayyash, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Jesse B. Bump, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Ryan D. Doerfler, Harvard Law School
- Atalia Omer, Harvard Divinity School
- Bram Wispelwey, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School
- Sara Roy, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Neel Mukherjee, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Margareta Matache, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Soham Patel, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- John Womack, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Musa Syeed, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Jacinda Tran, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Vincent Brown, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Adhy Kim, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Richard Thomas, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Lara Jirmanus, Harvard Medical School
- Altaf Saadi, Harvard Medical School
- Hibah Osman, Harvard Medical School
- Lisa Thompson, Harvard School of Dental Medicine
- Khameer Kidia, Harvard Medical School
- Mary T Bassett, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Sawsan Abdulrahim, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Cemal Kafadar, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Lauren Kaminsky, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Amy Hollywood, Harvard Divinity School
- Malak Rafla, Harvard Medical School
- Bassima Abdallah, Harvard Medical School
- Alejandra Caraballo, Harvard Law School
- Eleanor Craig, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Matylda Figlerowicz, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Adam Haber, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Tara K. Menon, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Arunabh Ghosh, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Joel Suarez, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Karameh Kuemmerle, Harvard Medical School
- Sam Marks, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Rosie Bsheer, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Nader Uthman, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Glenda Carpio, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Adaner Usmani, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Paulina Alberto, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Sarah Darghouth, Harvard Medical School
- Alisa Khan, Harvard Medical School
- Patricia Stoeck, Harvard Medical School
- Hajirah Saeex, Harvard Medical School
- Sherar Andalcio, Harvard Medical School
- Diana L. Eck, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Gordon Schiff, Harvard Medical School
- Mahmoud Abu Hazeem, Harvard Medical School
- Rania El Fekih, Harvard Medical School
- Hicham Skali, Harvard Medical School
- Ramona Dvorak, Harvard Medical School
- Kamal Itani, Harvard Medical School
- Haytham Kaafarani, Harvard Medical School
- Ousmane Kane, Harvard Divinity School
- David U. Himmelstein, Harvard Medical School
- Joycelyn Ronda, Harvard Medical School
- Christian Williams, Harvard Law School
- Steffie Woodhandler, Harvard Medical School
- Ju Yon Kim, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- M. Amin Arnaout, Harvard Medical School
- Autumn Allen, Harvard Graduate School of Education
- Avik Chatterjee, Harvard Medical School
- Farhana Sharmeen, Harvard Medical School
- Duncan Kennedy, Harvard Law School
- Aisha James, Harvard Medical School
- Corey Hardin, Harvard Medical School
- Caroline Light, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Karen Huang, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- George Aumoithe, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Michelle Morse, Harvard Medical School
- Sadeq Rahimi, Harvard Medical School
- Sugata Bose, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Lorenzo Bondioli, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Michael Bronski, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- David Kennedy, Harvard Law School
- Christina Villarreal, Harvard Graduate School of Education
- Hilary Rantisi, Harvard Divinity School
- Kassem Safa, Harvard Medical School
- Huma Farid, Harvard Medical School
- Bernhard Nickel, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Amanda Raffoul, Harvard Medical School
- Martha Ann Selby, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Marshall Ganz, Harvard Kennedy School
- Amir Mohareb, Harvard Medical School
- Eman Ansari, Harvard Medical School
- Mohamed Jarraya, Harvard Medical School
- Liz McKenna, Harvard Kennedy School
- Maggie Doherty, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Hussein Rashid, Harvard Divinity School
- Juliana Morris, Harvard Medical School
- Sandra Smith, Harvard Kennedy School
- Kaia Stern, Harvard Graduate School of Education
- Nicholas Bloom, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Theodore Weatherwax, Harvard Medical School
- Rita Hamad, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Emmet von Stackelberg, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Areej Hassan, Harvard Medical School
- David Showalter, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Amina Elbendary, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Pedja Stojicic, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Ryan Enos, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences
- Raif S. Geha, Harvard Medical School
- Chance Bonar, Harvard Divinity School
- Nikhil Mathews, Harvard Medical School
- Hesham Hamoda, Harvard Medical School
- Talal Chatila, Harvard Medical School
- Jennifer Leaning, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health
- Gretchen Brion-Meisels, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Nir Barkat, Israel’s minister of economy and industry, is warning American universities to crack down on antisemitism.
“Schools that prioritize taking money instead of doing what’s right and doing good are going to have a serious problem,” Barkat told CNN on Thursday.
Speaking from a Manhattan hotel, Barkat said his recent conversations with lawmakers during his trip to the United States suggest there will be legislative efforts to crack down on antisemitism on campus.
“You’re going to see many funders of Ivy League and other universities shy away from that behavior,” he said.
Barkat argued that schools that failed to fight antisemitism are “going to be paying a heavy price for that.”
Hostage?
How about building prison walls manned with snipers around Gaza?
That doesn't make them hostages of Israel?
How about the 17 year long, illegal blockade?
Meanwhile Here In Canada...
A List Of Some People In Canada Fired For Pro-Palestine Views
In recent weeks, many people in Canada have been investigated, suspended and/or fired by their employer for posting about Palestine.
ResourcesLabourInternational
by Davide Mastracci
November 10, 2023 ∙ 11 min read
Photo via Beyzaa Yurtkuran on Pexels.
In recent weeks, many people within Canada have been investigated, suspended and/or fired by their employer for expressing pro-Palestine views on social media and elsewhere. The Maple intends to document and share as many examples of such cases — where the person was disciplined for posts or comments made on or after October 7 — as possible.
To start, I’ve compiled particularly well known incidents that have already been made public. Based on preliminary tips we’ve received from human rights organizations and lawyers, we know the cases below are just a fraction of the overall incidents. For example, here’s how an open letter from legal organizations described the state of retaliation in that industry: “Lawyers are openly advocating on social media to blacklist law students and lawyers who have voiced support for Palestine; Lawyers are contacting the employers of lawyers and encouraging they be fired for their pro-Palestinian advocacy. Law firms (many of which issued unprecedented, political statements in support of Israel) are rescinding interview offers to students who sign open letters condemning Israel. Law schools are threatening those students with expulsion.”
However, non-public examples will take time and resources to research and share, so I’ve chosen to put this out for now while The Maple team continues our work to create a more comprehensive resource.
The incidents below are listed in alphabetical order, and each one contains the name of the person, their position, their employer, the status of the action against them and what happened. Confirmed incidents where the targeted people have remained anonymous are listed at the end.
If you know of any more incidents, and/or have been personally investigated, suspended, or fired by your employer due to expressing pro-Palestine views since October 7, please get in touch with us at opinion@readthemaple.com
This list will be updated going forward.
Zahraa Al-Akhrass
- Position: Online video journalist
- Employer: Global News
- Status: Fired
Here are a couple of the posts she cited as being brought up in her employer’s talks with her:
On October 29, Al-Akhrass posted about the incident on her Instagram page.
On November 1, she posted about it again, this time writing, “My termination of employment was with cause, meaning the company wasn’t legally required to pay me any severance, however, I was offered an amount of money to stay quiet and not go public with my story. This is only to further silence me and I find myself forced to use say it in public in defense of some accusations being circulated to discredit me. This pattern of oppression of Palestinian voices must stop.”
Al-Akhrass has since stated that she is filing a lawsuit against Global for firing her while she was on maternity leave.
Aarij Anwer
- Position: Muslim chaplain
- Employer: Western University
- Status: Fired
Anwer has since tweeted that he is “considering all legal options available.”
Sabreina Dahab
- Position: School board trustee
- Employer: Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board
- Status: Investigation
The statement didn’t specify the posts in question, but news reporting on the incident mentioned the following tweet from Dahab as an example:
Dahab’s statement adds, “As this investigation is underway, I have been advised by my legal counsel to not make any further comments as it relates to the alleged breach of the code of conduct. I will provide updates at the appropriate time.”
The school board has declined to comment on specifics of the investigation.
Javier Dávila
- Position: Student equity adviser
- Employer: Toronto District School Board
- Status: Suspended
Dávila sent several tweets earlier that day in support of students from the school that had walked out in protest demanding a ceasefire.
Here are a couple of them:
Dávila later noted on Twitter, “This is the 4th time I've been suspended by the TDSB for supporting Palestinian liberation. I’ve been investigated by their Human Rights Office, employee services, the Integrity Commissioner, the Ontario College of Teachers and Toronto Police and cleared each time. I won’t stop!”
The TDSB has yet to comment on the suspension.
Mostafa Ezzo
- Position: Pilot
- Employer: Air Canada
- Status: Fired
Sarah Jama
- Position: MPP
- Party: Ontario NDP
- Status: Removed from caucus and censured in the legislature
The controversy began on October 10 when Jama tweeted the following statement calling for a ceasefire:
The ONDP, which now supports a ceasefire, forced Jama to apologize the next day. Jama is now sitting as an independent MPP that isn’t able to speak in the legislature. She has announced that she will challenge the censure, and also threatened to sue Ontario Premier Doug Ford for allegedly defamatory comments he made about her.
Yara Jamal
- Position: Web writer and production assistant
- Employer: CTV Atlantic
- Status: Fired
In an October 26 Instagram post on the Free Palestine Halifax page, Jamal wrote, “Recently, a SaltWire journalist decided to take a quote out of context. I was asked if Jews can exist in a Free Palestine in which I had replied saying, ‘Jews can exist, Zionist ideology cannot.’ Elaborating on what I meant by Zionist ideology, I told the journalist I meant the state of Israel. Israel is labeled by many reputable human rights organizations as an apartheid state. When international and national world leaders call Palestinians ‘animals’ and Israeli politicians call for the extermination of Palestinians it is not publicized, but when a Palestinian says ‘a Free Palestine cannot exist with an apartheid, Zionist state’ it is publicized as anti-Semitic.”
Natalie Knight
- Position: English instructor
- Employer: Langara College
- Status: Placed on leave
The pro-Israeli Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver has called for Knight to be fired.
Shumail Mian
- Position: Constable
- Employer: Toronto Police Service
- Status: Under investigation
The Maple reached out to Toronto Police for an update on the investigation but has yet to hear back.
Mustafa Rahmanzadeh
- Position: Special constable
- Employer: Toronto Police Service
- Status: Under investigation
The Maple reached out to Toronto Police for an update on the investigation but has yet to hear back.
Nisam Siddiqui
- Position: Senior analyst
- Employer: Privy Council Office
- Status: Under investigation
The Maple reached out to the PCO for an update on the investigation. Their media spokesperson replied: “We disagree in the strongest possible terms with the remarks posted. These remarks do not reflect the values and expected behaviours of the public service. Adherence to the Values and Ethics Code of the Public Service is a condition of employment for all federal public servants. While, in accordance with the Privacy Act, we are unable to provide details in relation to the employee or the status of any investigation, a breach of the values or expected behaviours described in the Values and Ethics Code of the Public Service may result in disciplinary measures, up to and including termination of employment.”
Ben Thomson
- Position: Nephrologist
- Employer: Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital
- Status: Suspended
That day, Ben Thomson was given a one month suspension without pay. Thomson had attracted criticism from pro-Israel groups and anonymous callers who threatened the hospital with violence, and had his home address leaked, due to this post.
CBC has reported that the hospital denied Thomson’s posts were the reason for his suspension, without elaborating any further.
The hospital has added several updates to its original announcement since then, including that they were working with police to heighten security measures as a result of online threats and also “working with Dr. Thomson on his plan to return to work once it is deemed safe to do so.”
They eventually posted a statement from Thomson, which you can read in full:
“After innocent civilians in Israel and Gaza were killed, I posted to social media in an effort to correct what I believed was misinformation and to oppose language that was dehumanizing to Palestinians. That post was then retweeted and subsequently threats of violence were made against me and my colleagues at Mackenzie Health. I did not intend for these consequences when I posted on social media. I acknowledge the harm that was caused. These threats against me and Mackenzie Health are unacceptable. Patients, staff, physicians, and others need to feel safe when attending Mackenzie Health. I recognize that the circumstances were unprecedented and I acknowledge Mackenzie Health’s position that it acted with urgency in order to keep everyone, including myself, at Mackenzie Health safe. As a physician and humanitarian, I deplore all loss of life, including that of Palestinian and Israeli civilians. I deplore all forms of discrimination. I have always and continue to oppose all forms of racism including antisemitism and anti-Palestinian racism. I am committed to providing the best care to all my patients regardless of race, creed or religion. I have and will continue to provide care that upholds this commitment. I join with others who call for peace and safety for all. I am committed to working with Mackenzie Health to safely resume my work as a doctor and to caring for all of my patients at Mackenzie Health.”
Anonymous #1
- Position: Restaurant employees
- Employer: Moxies
- Status: Fired
On October 21, a pro-Palestine march in downtown Toronto passed a location of the Moxies restaurant chain. Four Moxies employees stood at the front steps of the restaurant and applauded as the march passed. Video footage of the incident was shared online.
Pro-Israel groups put pressure on the restaurant to fire the employees. On October 22, the restaurant’s Twitter account posted: “We sincerely apologize to anyone impacted negatively by these actions. We ask that our team behaves respectfully & demonstrate empathy & sensitivity & can assure you that a formal investigation has been launched & appropriate disciplinary actions will be taken for all involved.”
Get all the latest posts delivered straight to your inbox.
SUBSCRIBE
The link has been copied!
Member discussion
1 comment
