Canary Mission, an anonymous website profiling anti-Israel campus activists and organizations, is citing safety concerns to justify its anonymity and arguing that it is using public information to make its allegations.
“See the comments on our Twitter feed and YouTube video and get an idea of why we are not particularly forthcoming right now,” the person or people behind the site wrote on its blog.
The extensive profiles include individuals’ photos, bios, Twitter handles, LinkedIn pages, personal blogs and evidence including screenshots of relevant Facebook posts and videos of their participation in events such as Israeli Apartheid Week.
"It's not even self-respecting McCarthyism," Marc Oppenheimer wrote in Tablet, as "the good senator from Appleton, Wisconsin was willing to show his face."
Canary Mission’s Twitter feed does reveal anti-Semitism, including one from user @1967Palestine that reads "The term Anti Semitic is Null and Void it's a term used by Zionist scum to intimidate people from criticizing Israel."
Those profiled on the website also report receiving hate mail of their own. Rebecca Pierce, whose efforts to condemn a Jewish Zionist professor for what she alleged were Islamaphobic remarks landed her on Canary Mission’s “Individuals” page, reported via Twitter that an account Canary Mission follows has been harassing her, calling her a “filthy Kapo slut” and other slurs.
The account in question, Proud Jew, was also responsible for a bomb threat at Columbia University prior to an event sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine entitled “Media, Solidarity, and Palestine” this past March, tweeting, “All you neo-Nazis in one place makes a good target for an IED ;)”
The New York Jewish Week brings you the stories behind the headlines, keeping you connected to Jewish life in New York. Help sustain the reporting you trust by donating today.
