214

'Chilling effect': People expressing pro-Palestinian views censured, suspended from work and school | CBC News (www.cbc.ca)

submitted 10 months ago by Silverseren@kbin.social to c/world@lemmy.world

48 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Restaurant staff losing their jobs for cheering on a pro-Palestinian protest. A Palestinian Canadian journalist fired for her social media posts calling for a #freepalestine. Medical residents flagged to potential hiring committees for their support of Palestinians.

These are just some of the many instances across Canada in which employees and students have faced firings, suspensions or calls for them to not be hired based on their publicly stated political stance on the Israel-Hamas war. It's a trend that has been reported not just in Canada but also in the U.S. and Europe, and across various industries, including media, law, health care and the service sector.

According to three Ontario-based lawyers who spoke to CBC News, some employers and institutions have been quick to take action against employees or students, creating an environment in which many are afraid they will lose their jobs or face consequences to their education if they express a political stance in favour of one side — Palestinians — during this war.

"I can tell you personally, in the last month and a half, I've probably spoken with someone at least once a day [about this]," said Jackie Esmonde, a labour lawyer at Toronto-based firm Cavalluzzo Law. "They're not always cases that we take on, but we do have in the range of eight to 10 cases that we're actively working on at the moment.

"I'm not seeing people making what I would consider hate speech or discriminatory speech."

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] sleep_deprived@lemmy.world 25 points 10 months ago

Here's a field manual that details the rules and has some advice. There are a whole host of rules protecting civillians hospitals, but in the case where Hamas is using them as military bases, I'd say they can be considered primarily as human shields, though I'm no expert, and even if that's not the case they're still civillians and therefore protected. According to paragraph 2-20, "feasible precautions" must be taken to reduce civillian harm. This means bombing is pretty much out of the question, but there are still plenty of other ways to get at Hamas, such as SpecOps, sieges, and diplomacy. It's a difficult situation, but that doesn't mean you get to kill civillians with impunity.

[-] ArchAengelus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 10 months ago

My first thought, when I heard about the Hamas tunnels was: is it a war crime to pump carbon monoxide into the tunnels? Then I heard that they were keeping the hostages in the tunnels. So yes. Yes, it would be.

[+] LaChaleurDeLaNuit@lemmy.world -25 points 10 months ago

In other words "too bad you get bombed with rockets launched from hospitals and schools, now you can't retaliate".

Anyway those moral lessons are given by countries and people who've never been in a similar situation, not by a long shot so they're pretty much worthless.

If you truly wanted to help the Palestinians you would advocate for a real, democratic government to rule them that would actively seek peace with Israel, not a terrorist organisation whose only goal is to annihilate it.

[-] filister@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

What about democratic government in Israel who is truly seeking a peaceful solution of this conflict and not a bunch of far right extremists? Is it too much to ask?

What about a fair treatment of Palestinians, giving them some dignity? The war and the conditions regular Palestinians are put through are only going to radicalize even more people there. Look at yourself, you seem to be hating and generalising them as all being supporters of Hamas, but look at yourself, you seem quite on the far right spectrum without even going through this hell. So how are you seriously expecting any better from them, who for generations have been treated as second class citizens.

And believe me very few people here are antisemites, as you claim. I believe most people are making a difference between your government actions and regular people. And calling everyone who is pro-human rights person antisemite is a common apologist point of view.

And again, if you had managed to find peace with them and was treating them fairly in the past and wasn't conducting violent indiscriminate war against them for decades, yes, I said decades, because it is concerted effort not starting just now but going for a very long time, I am sure the antisemite globally would be a lot lower number.

[+] LaChaleurDeLaNuit@lemmy.world -14 points 10 months ago

Don't call yourself pro-human right if you're unable to condemn terrorism when it's in front of your, when literal peace activists are currently held hostages in gaza. Dont lecture me on human rights when you support a country that executes gay people.

You really think being anti Israel is being pro human rights?

Your speech is very nice and full of hope but it completely erases the fact that children in Palestine are raised to hate Jews, but I guess antisemitism is basic human rights too.

Also I don't mind being called right wing, it's only a slur for you.

"You generalize all palestiniens being supporters of Hamas'" take a look at this poll

bottom line:

Some 60 per cent in Gaza expressed support for the armed struggle against Israel, as did 70 per cent in the West Bank

[-] filister@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

I am condemning terrorism, and any act of aggression towards civilians. I am definitely not pro-Hamas, no matter how you try to twist my words. But I am also not feeling obliged to condemn them in every of my comments, but if you look through my comments you will see a fair bit of me condemning them.

I am also not anti Israel, I know Israeli people, I have visited the country on a couple of occasions and I still believe there are a lot of sane and good hearted people there who also want to find a peaceful solution to this conflict.

You on the other hand didn't say anything good for Palestinians or expressed any human empathy towards their suffering.

How is starving the whole population of Gaza justifiable in your eyes, or the internal displacement? Or crippling their entire health care system?

Why do you think terrorism isn't flourishing during peace and prosperity? By killing them and making them live through this hell you won't achieve anything other than radicalizing those people and giving birth to more Hamas or replacing this with the next terrorist organisation fighters. When did violence have been a basis of long term peace?

[+] LaChaleurDeLaNuit@lemmy.world -7 points 10 months ago

Any killing of civilians is unacceptable obviously. But all you so called pro Palestinian peace activists need to find a solution real quick for Israel to stop being constantly attacked if you keep criticizing the way it reacts.

But the truth is you don't have a better suggestion, because luckily your country is not in this situation. But at least don't be an hypocrite about it and just admit you don't know what Israel should do but what you do know is that it apparently shouldn't eliminate the terrorists next door.

As for the starving of civilians please spare me the Hamas propaganda, there are hundreds of trucks entering Gaza everyday, but Hamas is stealing a lot of the aid unfortunately, as they be been doing since they're in power.

Israel is fighting anti-west Islamism which will ultimately benefit you too but all you are able to do is criticise it with zero valid arguments.

[-] filister@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Ah yes, all the human rights watch groups, WHO, the UN, and even your closest ally the US who by the way is flying drones over Gaza is admitting that there is a humanitarian catastrophe, why should I believe them if you tell me that this isn't the case. But what do I know.

[-] LaChaleurDeLaNuit@lemmy.world -5 points 10 months ago

I mean when Ismail Haniyeh leader of Hamas thanks the UN for their decision, yeah maybe reconsider your sources, just a wild thought.

[-] groupofcrows@lemmy.ca 14 points 10 months ago

Yes, Hamas the terrorist organisation which was funded by the Israeli government because Netanyahu didn't want to negotiate peace with a unified Palestinian Authority. In what year did the citizens of gaza elect Hamas as their representatives?

[-] sleep_deprived@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

They're welcome to retaliate. They're just not allowed to indiscriminately bomb civillian infrastructure.

this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023

214 points (91.8% liked)

World News

39021 readers

1061 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.