Campaign to silence pro-Palestine voices in the US creates chilling effect

When 17-year-old Amar organised a walkout at her high school in New Jersey to show solidarity with Palestine, she had no idea she would face such a backlash.

Both before and after the November event, Amar said she and her co-organiser received dozens of death threats on their mobile phones. Detractors had found their phone numbers on the event flyers disseminated online, she said.

"They were calling us anti-Semitic, hateful, violent," Amar told TRT World. "We were standing with the people of Palestine. I'm Syrian, but I think it's a humanitarian issue. You don't have to be Palestinian to see innocent people (facing) genocide."

Ayah Mansour, a 24-year-old Palestinian American, also tried speaking out against Zionism. But her online posts incurred the wrath of an activist who doxxed her, releasing her name, address and place of work last month.

He also dug up decade-old tweets Mansour had posted as a young teen that were critical of Jewish people and reposted them, along with contact information for the head of human resources at her employer, retail giant Target.

"All of his followers from different countries started mass emailing that lady," Mansour told TRT World. About a week later, she walked into work and was asked to join a meeting with the store director and a corporate HR representative.

"She was like, 'unfortunately you violated our social media policy and it doesn't reflect upon our values. So unfortunately we're going to have to terminate you.' (My boss) was literally talking about promoting me two months before that. I was working there for almost six years. Five years gone in five minutes," said Mansour, who had been an executive manager.

Amar and Mansour are just some of the many Americans who have faced repercussions for expressing support for Palestinians over the past three months.

Thousands of complaints of bias and requests for help have poured in since Oct. 7, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has said. Last month, CAIR said it recorded 2,171 incidents in the first 60 days of Israel's war on Gaza - a 172 percent increase from the same time last year.

The complaints involved First Amendment issues such as violations of an individual’s right to free speech and expression, employment woes, hate crimes and hate speech and education and bullying.

Things have never been this polarised before, according to Nader Hashemi, a professor of Middle East studies and Islamic politics at Georgetown University.

Speaking to TRT World, he said political leaders including US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have framed the Oct. 7 attacks as the "reappearance of Nazism."

"Because there is a perception that this is another replay of fascism and Nazism targeting Jews in an echo of World War II, we see hardline supporters of Israel going to war against anyone who is perceived to be their enemy. So supporters of Palestinian humans are portrayed incorrectly as being pro-Hamas or anti-Semites."

This approach has created a difficult environment for education and debate, Hashemi added.

"This has had a very chilling effect on supporters of Palestinian human rights, who are forced to think twice as to whether they want to risk their careers by demanding justice for Palestinians, knowing they could be doxed or targeted."

Activists may also be seeing increased pushback due to fears about shifting public opinion on the Israel-Palestine conflict, particularly among younger Americans.

Last month, a New York Times-Siena College poll found that nearly three-quarters of voters between 18 and 29 years old disapprove of Biden’s staunch support for Israel in the war.

Speaking to TRT World, Rania Mustafa, executive director of the Palestinian American Community Center in New Jersey, said, "Now more than ever the Palestinian struggle has gained momentum, attention and movement, and that is definitely scaring the Zionist movement."

But troublingly, there's now a movement to equate anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism, Mustafa added. "It dilutes real anti-Semitism, when you try to equate things that aren't anti-Semitic" as true attacks on Jewish people.

Mustafa herself has faced repercussions since Oct. 7. She said she thinks twice about wearing her keffiyeh when she's walking alone. Her centre no longer has an open-door policy due to the many harassing phone calls it has received. Her children are having trouble sleeping, and her entire family stays home more often.

While Jewish community members have received a lot of support in the US, Mustafa said those like her have not, and that hurts.

"People are not speaking up, defending Palestinian, Muslim, Arab communities. They're silencing us and vilifying us, grouping us with someone else. What can I say to be a threat? Just being Palestinian is a threat."

She added: "Which is very problematic. You end up putting the needs and safety and rights of one group of people very much at the expense of another group of people."

Mansour, the former Target employee whose mother and siblings live in the occupied West Bank, said before she was fired, the HR representative kept asking her to think about how her Jewish coworkers might feel.

"What about your Palestinian team members? You know my family lives there," she responded.

Long-term, Hashemi fears this culture of defamation will only prolong the US foreign policy approach to the Middle East.

"In this environment it’s difficult to have a rigorous, honest, open debate, about how our country should be responding to this global crisis."

He also lamented the changes happening on university campuses across the US.

"What we're seeing is something historic - huge threats to academic freedom that I've never seen before in my lifetime. By cancelling speakers and cancelling student groups, we are censoring debate on issues of global importance by equating support for Palestinian human rights with anti-Semitism."

He added, "This won't stop until people organise and push back against it."

Mustafa agreed.

"This is a time to report, this is not the time to be silent, this isn't the time to let things go. As a community we have been living with fear for a really long time," she said.

"Know your rights on all levels - remember we are living in America and we have our First amendment rights and we have to protect that."

Some activists said the new hostile climate does give them pause.

Mansour said CAIR has filed a petition for reinstatement with Target, but she's not sure she wants to go back, and has been applying to other jobs.

"My (social media) accounts have been private since then. It does kind of affect people in speaking up, it's hard," she said.

But many others have no plans to stop their efforts. That includes high school student Amar.

"No (I'm not intimidated) at all, it just shows that they're really scared of the truth. It actually makes me want to speak up more," she told TRT.