Canary Mission

Canary Mission is a website established in 2014[1] that compiles dossiers on student activists, professors, and organizations, focusing primarily on those at North American universities, which it considers be anti-Israel or antisemitic[2][3] and has said that it will send the names of listed students to prospective employers.[4] Canary Mission listings have been used by the Israeli government and border security officials to interrogate and deny entry to pro-Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) US citizens,[5][6] and by potential employers.[7]

Individuals listed by Canary have said it is a blacklist designed to intimidate students, faculty members, and community activists engaged in Palestine solidarity work.[8] Some pro-Israel activists consider the site's tactics to be overly aggressive, while others applaud its efforts against pro-Palestinian activists.[6]

The operators of the website have maintained their anonymity,[9] justifying their secrecy by saying that "many of our detractors just want to know who we are so they can physically harm us."[10]

Activity

According to their website, Canary Mission "documents individuals and organizations that promote hatred of the US, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses".[2] The profiles on the website are constructed using publicly visible information pulled from social media sites. The profiles are often quite detailed and have included personal information, such as child photos of individuals.[6] The website has thousands of profiles of students and professors who its editors believe have engaged in pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel activism, and it has been described as a blacklist. It also includes a handful of profiles for prominent white supremacists.[6] Canary Mission hosts some apology essays written by people whose profiles were listed on the site; in return, their profiles are removed from the website's list.[3][6]

Timeline

In December 2017, Canary Mission reported on what it alleged antisemitic tweets posted by students associated with Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) at McMaster University. The tweets were written between 2011 and 2017, and contained support for Hitler as well as calls for death of Israel and Zionists. SPHR in response said it "condemns all forms of anti-Semitism within our organization", and that the referenced comments were "intolerable in every sense".[11] The university actively reviewed the "disturbing social media post",[11] but did not publish the results of its review since "it is not our practice to provide details of any actions taken or sanctions applied with regard to individual students".[12]

In April 2018, during a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign at George Washington University, flyers with Canary Mission's logo were posted around the university denouncing a planned student senate vote.[13] On the day of the vote, two adult men wearing canary costumes performed a dance in the lobby of the building where the vote was taking place.[1] In September 2018, Canary Mission released a report on the vote, highlighting reputed antisemitic and anti-Israel tactics used to promote the vote.[14]

In May 2018, Canary Mission released a report on social media posts by Students for Justice in Palestine chapter members at Florida State University, saying that 36% of the social media posts by SJP members were "endorsements or promotion of terror as well as calls for intifada and violence against Jews".[15] The FSU SJP chapter subsequently released a statement writing that they "entirely condemn and denounce the racist, anti-Black, and anti-Semitic statements made by some of the individuals who were previous students and members of our SJP chapter," however commenting that some of the social media posts were "legitimate criticisms of Israeli governmental policies and practices, even though they are presented as anti-Semitic." According to Canary Mission, FSU SJP's response did not condemn social media posts that "called for intifada and violence against Jews."[16]

Use of Canary Mission listings

The Israeli security services have reportedly used content from Canary Mission to screen profiled individuals at Ben Gurion Airport. They also have reportedly used claims made on the website to justify decisions to deport people from Israel.[6]

Profiles hosted on Canary Mission may harm the employment opportunities of those listed, particularly students and untenured faculty, by exposing their statements to potential employers in a readily available online profile.[7][17][18] According to W.J.T. Mitchell, who has a Canary Mission profile, prospective employers see Canary Mission profiles appear at the top of Google search results for students and recent alumni who do not have a "very deep set of achievements".[19]

Structure

Canary Mission does not publish any information about who runs or funds the website. Although Canary Mission's website claims that it is a nonprofit organization, no organization with the name Canary Mission is registered with the IRS. Though Canary Mission's website does provide a way to donate to the organization via debit or credit card, there is no public record of Canary Mission's sponsors and/or donors.[20][21][22] Multiple pro-Israel organizations have denied having any affiliation with Canary Mission.[6]

According to Edwin Black, extreme antisemitic comments as well as outright threats of violence have been directed towards Canary Mission. Following the threats, Canary Mission became even more cautious and avoided disclosing its physical location or identity. According to Canary Mission's blog, "many of our detractors just want to know who we are so they can physically harm us," which according to Black has caused Canary Mission to restrict its communications with Journalists. Black, who says he was able to verify Canary Mission's location and operations, says they are a group of students and ex-students working in a medium-sized office in an American city.[10]

Funding

In October 2018, The Forward and Haaretz reported that Canary Mission received funding from the Hellen Diller Family Foundation, a supporting foundation of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco (JCFSF), and that the organization's operations were headed by Jonathan Bash through an Israeli charity named Megamot Shalom.[23] Soon after the exposure, JCFSF announced that they would cease funding Canary Mission.[24] The Forward also identified the Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles as a major donor to Megamot Shalom, having donated a sum of $250,000 in 2016–2017.[25]

The Lobby – USA, an undercover investigation by Al Jazeera into Israel’s covert influence campaign in the United States, reported that Adam Milstein was the major funding source for Canary Mission.[26]

Reception

The Forward reported that while some of the profiles include content that is "genuinely troubling", such as antisemitic social media posts, other accusations made by the website are misleading. One such profile accused a student of "demonizing Israel" because the student had made an announcement at a Hillel-sponsored dinner critical of Donald Trump's decision to move the United States embassy to Jerusalem.[6] According to Israeli attorney Emily Schaeffer Omer-Man, Canary Mission's information is "often neither reliable, nor complete, nor up to date". She said that the site should not be used by Israeli border officials as it does not meet the reliability standards mandated by Israeli law.[6]

Pro-Palestinian sources have denounced Canary Mission's activities as an attempt to silence critics of Israel on American college campuses through intimidation.[27][28][29] In response, pro-Palestinian activists have started a website called "Against Canary Mission", and say they intend to host profiles of people targeted by Canary Mission in order to portray their activism in a positive light.[27][28] Various critics have compared Canary Mission's practice of extorting apologies from targeted individuals in exchange for amnesty to that of authoritarian regimes and McCarthyism in the United States.[9][3]

Some pro-Israel organizations have also criticized Canary Mission for its aggressive tactics.[30] Jewish and pro-Israeli students have said that pro-Palestinian students and faculty have suspected them of colluding with Canary Mission, blaming them even when they were not involved with Canary.[6] The Israel on Campus Coalition has endorsed Canary Mission, writing that "through online platforms such as Canary Mission, a database devoted to exposing hatred of Jews and Israel, the pro-Israel community has established a strong deterrent against anti-Semitism and BDS activism".[7]

In February 2018, Twitter briefly suspended Canary Mission's account,[9] for exposing a 2017 tweet by a pro-Palestinian activist that "modified Adele's lyrics to say "Set Fire to the Jews". According to Twitter, they made an error in blocking Canary.[31]

In October 2019, Ray Hanania commented about the Canary Mission:

"Imagine the outrage that would be expressed if there was a website that maintained a public list of Jews, publishing their photos and personal information simply because they were active supporters of Israel. Well, you would have to imagine it because it doesn't exist. But you don't have to imagine a website that shows the photos and personal information of Arab Americans who support Palestinian rights and is filled with vicious accusations of them being "anti-Semitic" and even "anti-American."[32]

gollark: I don't understand what you're saying.
gollark: "A wizard did it" is a more plausible explanation for lightning than several hundred pages of theory on meteorology and electromagnetism.
gollark: Humans are generally wired to see agency in things which don't actually have it.
gollark: The problem is that "people using psychedelics feel god-related things" is entirely consistent with "god(s) exist" and "god(s) don't exist, but drugs can push god-related buttons in the brain".
gollark: That makes me less convinced, really.

References
  1. Nathan-Kazis, Josh (2 August 2018). "A New Wave Of Hardline Anti-BDS Tactics Are Targeting Students, And No One Knows Who's Behind It". Forward.
  2. "Pro-Israel donor Adam Milstein denies report that he funds Canary Mission". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 27 August 2018. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  3. Gresh, Alain (September 2018). "The truths that won't be heard". Le Monde Diplomatique. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  4. Maira, S. (2018). Boycott!: The Academy and Justice for Palestine. American Studies Now: Critical Histories of the Present. University of California Press. p. 94. ISBN 978-0-520-29488-2. Retrieved 2018-10-22.
  5. Thrall, Nathan (14 August 2018). "BDS: how a controversial non-violent movement has transformed the Israeli-Palestinian debate". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 December 2018.
  6. Nathan-Kazis, Josh (2 August 2018). "Canary Mission's Threat Grows, From U.S. Campuses To The Israeli Border". Forward. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  7. Nathan-Kazis, Josh; Zaltzman, Lior (3 October 2017). "Shadowy Blacklist Of Student Activists Wins Endorsement Of Mainstream Pro-Israel Group". The Forward. Retrieved 2020-01-16.
  8. "Teaching Palestine | AAUP". www.aaup.org.
  9. Nathan-Kazis, Josh (27 Feb 2018). "Twitter Account Blacklisting pro-Palestinian Activists, anti-Semites Deactivated". Haaretz. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  10. Inside Canary Mission, Edwin Black, 5 November 2016
  11. "'Death to Israel' tweets linked to Palestinian rights student group at McMaster". CBC. 18 December 2017.
  12. Csillag, Ron (28 February 2018). "McMaster tight-lipped on how it dealt with anti-Semitic tweets". The Canadian Jewish News.
  13. Rubin, Jesse (17 April 2018). "George Washington University divestment vote cancelled due to safety concerns following threatening anti-BDS posters". Mondoweiss. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  14. Richman, Jackson (28 September 2018). "Report highlights anti-Semitic tactics used by SJP members amid BDS debate at GW". JNS.org.
  15. Bandler, Aaron (30 May 2018). "Signs of Anti-Semitism at Florida State". Jewish Journal.
  16. Bandler, Aaron (4 June 2018). "FSU SJP Attempts to Distance Itself from Accusations of Anti-Semitism". Jewish Journal.
  17. Palumbo-Liu, David (4 September 2018). "The Anti-BDS Smear Campaign Escalates". Jacobin Magazine.
  18. Boycott!: The Academy and Justice for Palestine, University of California Press, Sunaina Maira, page 94
  19. The Trolls of Academe: Making Safe Spaces into Brave Spaces, Los Angeles Review of Books, W. J. T. Mitchell, 5 January 2018
  20. JTA (28 August 2018). "Pro-Israel donor Adam Milstein denies report that he funds Canary Mission". Times of Israel. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  21. Nathan-Kazis, Josh (27 May 2015). "Shadowy Web Site Creates Blacklist of Pro-Palestinian Activists". Forward. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  22. Canary Mission (13 October 2018). "Donate Today".
  23. Nathan-Kazis, Josh; Zeveloff, Naomi (3 October 2018). "Revealed: Canary Mission Blacklist is Secretly Bankrolled by Major Jewish Federation". Haaretz. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
  24. Nathan-Kazis, Josh (3 October 2018). "Following Forward Report, Federation says it will no longer fund Canary Mission".
  25. Nathan-Kazis, Josh (11 October 2018). "Jewish Charity Admits Funding Group Tied To Canary Mission Blacklist". The Forward.
  26. The Lobby - USA, episode 1, retrieved 2020-01-16
  27. Herbst, Robert (6 August 2018). "We need a communal response to Israeli gov't and Canary Mission attacks on Palestine's advocates". Mondoweiss. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  28. Barrows-Friedman, Nora (7 June 2018). "UC Davis students fight back against Canary Mission". Electronic Intifada. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  29. Committee on American Freedom. "Exposing Canary Mission". Middle East Studies Association. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  30. Tibon, Amir (30 August 2018). "Parts of Censored Al Jazeera Documentary on D.C. Israel Lobby Leaked". Haaretz. Retrieved 16 September 2018.
  31. Bandler, Aaron (5 March 2018). "Organization Fighting Anti-Semitism Locked Out of Twitter for Exposing an Anti-Semitic Tweet". Jewish Journal.
  32. "US website using hatred to silence criticism of Israel". Arab News. 23 October 2019.
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