...simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.
December 17, 2018 11:08 PM   Subscribe

A Texas Elementary School Speech Pathologist Refused to Sign a Pro-Israel Oath, Now Mandatory in Many States — so She Lost Her Job, The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald reports.
When asked if she considered signing the pledge to preserve her ability to work, Amawi told The Intercept: “Absolutely not. I couldn’t in good conscience do that. If I did, I would not only be betraying Palestinians suffering under an occupation that I believe is unjust and thus, become complicit in their repression, but I’d also be betraying my fellow Americans by enabling violations of our constitutional rights to free speech and to protest peacefully.”

As a result, Amawi informed her school district supervisor that she could not sign the oath. As her complaint against the school district explains, she “ask[ed] why her personal political stances [about Israel and Palestine] impacted her work as a speech language pathologist.”

In response, Amawi’s supervisor promised that she would investigate whether there were any ways around this barrier. But the supervisor ultimately told Amawi that there were no alternatives: Either she would have to sign the oath, or the district would be legally barred from paying her under any type of contract.
posted by Christ, what an asshole (12 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Sorry, but obviously some problems here; please contact us to fix -- taz



 
I am looking forward to all the free speech heroes coming to Bahia Amawi's defense...

...Oh, right.
posted by Ouverture at 11:17 PM on December 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


This is just all kinds of wrong.
Rage-inducing, and wrong.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 11:17 PM on December 17, 2018


The bill’s language is so sweeping that some victims of Hurricane Harvey, which devastated Southwest Texas in late 2017, were told that they could only receive state disaster relief if they first signed a pledge never to boycott Israel. That demand was deeply confusing to those hurricane victims in desperate need of help but who could not understand what their views of Israel and Palestine had to do with their ability to receive assistance from their state government.
Wow.

I don't think the Onion could even come up with something like this.
posted by Ouverture at 11:20 PM on December 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


This is a good article, but the substance-free tossed in dragging of Jonathan Chait and Bari Weiss at the end just seems like such a Greenwald move. Like, yeah, I’ve just put together a great indictment of some terrible laws, and now I will vent a bit.

But these laws sound not good, and good for him for writing this piece.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:21 PM on December 17, 2018


"To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize" is a quote by
Kevin Alfred Strom
A NOTED NEO NAZI HOLOCAUST DENIER. SO yeah. wtf???
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 11:27 PM on December 17, 2018 [3 favorites]


This would be an interesting and timely article if it was written by ANYONE else but noted Russia stooge Glenn Greenwald and framed in ANY OTHER WAY then with a quote from a notorious anti-semite
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 11:29 PM on December 17, 2018 [2 favorites]


The framing quote doesn't seem to be in the article, but yes, not great.
posted by Going To Maine at 11:35 PM on December 17, 2018


Ok, so these laws are obviously wrong, Glenn Greenwald is frustrating and annoyingly contrarian while being right about some things, as usual, but...

Can we talk about the title of this post? The line "To determine the true rulers of any society, all you must do is ask yourself this question: Who is it that I am not permitted to criticize?" is often attributed to various thinkers (Voltaire seems to be common), but is in fact a quote from Kevin Strom, neo-nazi, and is even today usually used as a reference to antisemitic conspiracy theories. Not great.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 11:36 PM on December 17, 2018 [2 favorites]


[Yee, saw the quote in various discussions, was ignorant of its root source -- mods, feel free to alter the title to its initial dumb pun: Loyalty Oaf]
posted by Christ, what an asshole at 11:36 PM on December 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


That is a good title!
posted by Going To Maine at 11:37 PM on December 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


This would be an interesting and timely article if it was written by ANYONE else but noted Russia stooge Glenn Greenwald and framed in ANY OTHER WAY then with a quote from a notorious anti-semite

I go right for the complaint, and avoid the commentary.
posted by mikelieman at 11:40 PM on December 17, 2018 [1 favorite]


this is insane, what the actual fuck.
posted by poffin boffin at 11:42 PM on December 17, 2018


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