WHEN OREGON MUSIC teacher Susan Lewis logged onto a Zoom meeting with her boss one afternoon in August 2024, she thought she would be preparing for a sixth year teaching at Valley Catholic School. Instead, she lost her job.

Lewis was shocked, she recalled in an interview with The Intercept, as were her colleagues and students. The school did not give any explanation for why they did not renew her contract. Unbeknownst to Lewis, the pro-Israel blacklist organization StopAntisemitism had recently launched an online campaign against her, framing her social media posts about the genocide in Gaza as “using her platform to spread vile antisemitic hate online.”

She sued StopAntisemitism for defamation in an Oregon state court over the summer, and the case was elevated to federal court last month. Her suit faces long odds, legal experts told The Intercept, but serves as a rare chance to register public dissent in the courts against the group’s targeting.

  • StinkyFingerItchyBum@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    That’s the point. Israeli extremists are purposefuly conflating criticism of israel’s indefensible war crimes in Gaza with defensible antisemitism. It’s worked wonders for them.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      They’ve done this for decades, and it was finally starting to fail (mostly because of the diminishing power of the gatekeeping ability of the MSM). But now they have the Taco admin behind them.

      Most people have seen through this for a very long time, but mostly had to be quiet about it. Otherwise, to criticize Israel was to be called “antisemitic” and the conversation was considered over.

    • MummysLittleBloodSlut@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      21 hours ago

      Israel: You people don’t hate genocide, you just hate Jews!

      Millions of people: I hate Jews, huh? Well sure mister bossman, if you say so.

      Israel is creating the antisemitism.