Shadowy Web Site Creates Blacklist of Pro-Palestinian Activists

[Little Tich]

Source: Jewish Daily Forward

A new website is publicizing the identities of pro-Palestinian student activists to prevent them from getting jobs after they graduate from college. But the website is keeping its own backers’ identity a secret.

“It is your duty to ensure that today’s radicals are not tomorrow’s employees,” a female narrator intones in a slick video posted to the website’s YouTube account.

Called Canary Mission, the site has posted profiles of dozens of students and recent graduates, alongside those of well-known activists like Omar Barghouti, founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Some of the students are active in Students for Justice in Palestine; others were involved in recent pro-BDS resolutions at campuses in California. Many of them have relatively thin activist résumés.

“The focus on young people and students is an effort to try to tell people that there will be a price for you taking a political position,” said Ali Abunimah, founder of the pro-Palestinian website The Electronic Intifada. “It’s an effort to punish and deter people from standing up for what they believe.”

Read more: http://forward.com/news/308902/shadowy-web-site-creates-black-list-of-pro-palestinian-activists/

[oberliner]

1. "there will be a price for you taking a political position..."

As opposed to there being a price for you being born an Israeli.

Jeez, I mean, it's not like Abuminah has ever tried to punish and deter people from standing up for what they believe.

[King_David]

2. Exactly. nt

[Little Tich]

3. I'm very averse to lists of political opponents of any kind.

It's outright dangerous for democracy to try to use intimidation to silence political opponents. Fortunately, people know very well that this is political blacklisting, and what that means.

The Canary Mission won't last for long.

[King_David]

4. Agreed

They won't last long .

In this age of social media Job applicants are sometimes scrutinized way beyond what anyone ever was in the past.

My friends disable their Facebook and Twitter months prior to applying and interviewing for jobs.

[oberliner]

5. Understood

But Abuminah uses intimidation to silence political opponents, too. And he has a lot more visitors than this shady website.

My point is not in support of "The Canary Mission" but in asking for Abuminah to not similarly try to bully people who have different ideas from him or to encourage people not to engage with other academics simply because they are affiliated with a university in Israel (as most Israeli academics are) or because their dance troupe got some funding from an Israeli government arts foundation (as many Israeli performing groups have).

[Little Tich]

6. At least we agree on the Canary mission.

We may have different opinions about when a boycott is morally OK, however. And if Ali Abunimah uses bullying tactics he should stop.

[azurnoir]

7. In reality this sort of intimidation has been going on for years

Who says the Israel lobby doesn’t like to operate out in the open? Well, former American Israel Public Affairs Committee official Steve Rosen does. But that message has not reached the head of a group that monitors Palestine solidarity activism on college campuses and has been instrumental in the use of civil rights complaints to claim that the activism creates an “anti-Semitic” environment for Jewish students.

In a letter sent to supporters of the Louis D. Brandeis Center, Kenneth Marcus boasts that his organization is instilling “fear” into Palestine solidarity activists. While student activists have previously reported being intimidated on campus, it is noteworthy that the head of an organization allegedly concerned about anti-Semitism on campus is trumpeting the fact that he is intimidating political opponents.

Cal SJP students are routinely subject to video surveillance by Israel-aligned activists who attend Cal SJP events. Counter protestors from Israel-aligned organizations – both on and off-campus groups – frequently attend SJP events and take close-up videos. Students feel physically unsafe after being videoed at events because they do not know how Israel-aligned organizations will use data collected against them. -

See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2012/12/head-of-israel-lobby-education-group-boasts-of-fear-political-opponents-feel#sthash.rRFZuDyB.dpuf

[oberliner]

8. Mondoweiss

Gee, it's not like they are hostile towards Israel-algined activists. I know they are always treated with respect and made to feel safe.

[azurnoir]

9. please cite examples of actual intimadation against ProIsrael activists that you state Abunimah

and Weiss use things on the order of threats we see here from Canary and Marcus

[oberliner]

11. No thanks

I am tired of this. I take back any such accusation. I hope we can all get along and make the most of life.

[DanTex]

10. The I/P conflict in a nutshell:

Instead of recognizing the horrible thing one's own side does, just point the finger at the other guy.

[Jefferson23]

12. +1. n/t

[Little Tich]

13. The BDS Blacklist Is a Jewish Moral Failure

Source: The Jewish Daily Forward

I, like many others, read the Forward’s report on the website Canary Mission today — and shuddered.

This organization documents, on its website, the names and photographs of pro-Palestinian activists around the country with links to their personal details, social media profiles, and print-out profiles for activists. The database, as stated on the webpage, “was created to expose individuals and groups that are anti-Freedom, anti-American and anti-Semitic in order to protect the public and our democratic values.” Organizers are not listed, but the public is invited to submit “a sourced profile of someone involved in anti-Semitic and/or anti-Israel activities” for [anonymous] publication. Mondoweiss and Jewish Voice for Peace are listed as equivalent to Hamas; many students’ LinkedIn profiles are attached in a probable effort to prevent their employment.

So what do we make of a website that has literally created a publically available BDS blacklist?

My reaction is threefold: 1) it is wrong, 2) it is scary, and 3) who is next, and what can we expect?

Read more: http://forward.com/opinion/309005/the-bds-blacklist-is-a-jewish-moral-failure/