“Anti-Semitic” claims aimed at a Palestinian university lecturer … Once Again!

“Anti-Semitic” claims aimed at a Palestinian university lecturer … Once Again! (Unsplash)

One more Palestinian scholar silencing attempt by “Anti-Semitic” accusation!

A British university suspended a Palestinian Ph.D. student from her job as an associated lecturer after a smear campaign by the Israeli lobby condemning her solidarity with Palestinian, her hometown.

Shahd Abusalama is a Cinema Ph.D. student at Sheffield Hallam University who was just appointed as an associated lecturer at the university

After showing her solidarity online by simply tweeting about her life growing up in the Gaza strip in Palestine under Israeli blockade, she was targeted by an Israeli campaign accusing her of “anti-Semitism”.

In her tweets, Shahd spoke about the terror she had lived in being separated from her family while they were under Israeli bombardment.

This is incident is not unique, the campaign tactic was used yet before against David Miller, a professor at Bristol University in an attempt to silence another Palestine supporter.

Miller was fired from his job following the anti-semitism accusations even though he was found innocent of them all.

Even though Shahd was recently hired, she is now facing the same fate as Miller, as the administrator informed of her class being canceled until the investigations are over.

I survived many Israeli attacks, both military and discursive. Not shocked by Zionist smears and deflections from a settler-colonial apartheid state. But I’m shocked that my academic community seems more interested in protecting its reputation than my academic freedom & wellbeing

— ShahdAbusalama (@ShahdAbusalama) January 22, 2022

Shahd continues to survive the repeated attacks of Israeli supporters just like her family survived the Israeli Militias in 1948 as they were forced out of their own homes.

Shahd and her family face the same pain Palestinian refugees around the world face, being forced out of their own home, detained from ever visiting your own homeland because you are not Jewish, and face backlash and accusation of being anti-Semitic for simply supporting your country, the place your family lived years in.

This is a vile, yet classic, attack on Palestinian students. Universities suppress advocacy and academic freedom all while parroting the empty jargon of “decolonization” and “free speech.” @sheffielduni must be held accountable for this arbitrary and racist action. https://t.co/gHchI3JNi3

— Mohammed El-Kurd (@m7mdkurd) January 23, 2022

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“Free Speech” but not for Palestinians

It is still not clear which group started the backlash against Shahd, however, these tactics are used to silence activists and Palestinian scholars standing for Palestine.

according to Electronic Intifada, Abusalama was outraged and offended by the university following upon the racist claim calling anti-Semitic. “the university would engage with and respond to such racist publications and confirm to them that they would investigate me without approaching their own community member first.”

Today hundreds are supporting Shahd and standing in solidarity with her over social media with the hashtag #InSupportOfShahd is trending on Twitter, in hopes that no other Palestinian scholar faces the same Miller and Abusalama faced.