Michael Eisen says his dismissal was due to his sharing the satirical article.
Michael Eisen says his dismissal was due to his sharing the satirical article.
A Jewish editor in chief of a science journal says he was fired from his position after sharing an article on the siege in Gaza from the satirical website The Onion.
Michael Eisen, who edits the Cambridge-based science journal eLife, on Monday shared the news of his dismissal on X (formerly Twitter).
Eisen, who is also a geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley, had shared an Onion article titled “Dying Gazans Criticized for Not Using Last Words to Condemn Hamas.”
“Every sane person on Earth is horrified and traumatized by what Hamas did and wants it to never happen again,” he clarified in a later tweet. “All the more so as a Jew with Israeli family. But I am also horrified by the collective punishment already being meted out on Gazans, and the worse that is about to come.”
To protest Eisen’s firing, fellow editor Lara Urban also announced her resignation on Monday afternoon.
It's not just Christians. I've been called anti semetic by some right wing extened family at holiday meals; and by some teachers at the Jewish day school I attended.
I, for one, fully support Israel because it seems like you get in less trouble for that.
Some may call me a coward for this decision. To this, I can only say the following: If a coward is a person who avoids taking a difficult stance on topics for personal expediency, then “coward” is a badge I will gladly wear, again and again and again.