Student Out of Job Over Israel Comments: I Won't Be Silenced

New York University law student Ryna Workman had a job offer rescinded, lost their position as president of the Student Bar Association, and received a host of online threats after blaming Israel for lives lost in the latest outbreak of its war against Hamas. Speaking to the Intercept, the lawyer-in-training says they intended "to call attention to the lack of coverage about Palestinians and to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza," the narrow strip of land between Israel and Egypt which is home to more than 2 million Palestinians and which Israel began bombing after the surprise attack on its territory. But Workman fears "this backlash against me and other people who have spoken out" will feed a "dangerous media narrative ... in which violence against Palestinian civilians is normalized."

Though it's not new to see groups targeting supporters of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, which aims to end international support for what is seen as Israel's oppression of Palestinians, "this is an unprecedented moment of anxiety and fear for everyone speaking out publicly in support of Palestinians, who are compelled to do so to stop an unfolding genocide in Gaza," said Dima Khalidi, director of advocacy group Palestine Legal. "There has always been a concerted effort to shut down the movement for Palestinian rights through censorship, legal bullying, doxxing, and more," she says. But "now that attack has been magnified by 100." As the Guardian reports, Harvard students had their faces plastered on a billboard truck with the words "Harvard's biggest antisemites," funded by a network of right-wing groups.

A blacklist of BDS activists maintained by the Canary Mission, a group that claims to document those "that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses," has "fostered an environment where students speaking out in support of Palestinians or against Israel's policies became vulnerable to targeted harassment and discipline in both the academy and employment," per the Intercept. But advocating for Palestinian human rights should not be punished, says Workman, noting their words were "in line with, what many Jewish peace activists and Israelis, including the editorial board of Israel's largest newspaper, have voiced." Workman adds they will "continue to speak out" for Palestinians who "are asking us to ... show up for them through this and to not let this be their end." (More Israel-Hamas war stories.)