Israeli blacklisting, intimidation mission in US

By Ahmet Dursun and Burak Dag

ANKARA (AA) – As an intelligence tool, Israel uses and manipulates the information from the website Canary Mission, which publishes profiles of academics and students who support Palestine, in an effort to impede their career advancement.

The platform, established in 2014, has been creating a "blacklist" by labeling pro-Palestinian supporters, including Jews who oppose Israeli violence, as antisemitic to spoil their careers.

Canary Mission has been compiling information about academics and students and publishing information without permission to discredit and intimidate Palestine supporters.

“Canary Mission documents people and groups that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews. We investigate hatred across the North American political spectrum, including the far-right, far-left and anti-Israel activists,” the group said on its website.

“Every individual and organization has been carefully researched and sourced. You can help expose hatred by alerting us to anti-Semitic activity on your college campus and beyond.”

In addition to student organizations at US universities, the list also includes institutions such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), one of the most significant Muslim organizations, and media organizations like the Qatar-based Al Jazeera television.

- Attempts to silence Jews opposing Israel's occupation

Canary Mission primarily targets Muslim, Arab and immigrant students and academics but it has drawn attention for including Jews who oppose the occupation of Palestine.

The profiles published on the website, seemingly based on open-source intelligence regarding individuals and organizations, appear to contain information that may include details considered private.

Some of the individuals blacklisted by Canary Mission appear in Google searches with information sourced from the extremely right-wing site.

One notable example is the presence of childhood photos of Esther Tsvayg, a Jewish Stanford University student.

Tsvayg expressed her displeasure with the situation in a message on X on Sept. 12.

“I have spent so much of my own money and time trying to regain control of my online presence. Now, Google has determined that Canary Mission is the singularly most credible, authoritative source on who I am. This is what happens when we rely on algorithms to mete out truth,” she wrote.

Zoe Jasper, an Oberlin College student and member of Jewish Voice for Peace at Oberlin, discovered she was listed by Canary Mission and wrote an article for the Jewish Student Press Service's magazine, New Voices, in 2019.

Jasper noted feeling "discomfort and fear" that she had never experienced before when she first saw her profile on Canary Mission. “I will use my place on your blacklist as incentive to delve deeper into the progressive movements that I know are essential to my Judaism,” she wrote.

- Financial ties

While the founders of Canary Mission remain shrouded in mystery, the organization accepts tax-deductible donations publicly through its website.

In an article published on Dec. 22 in the Nation, journalist James Bamford highlighted the "highly secretive" connections of Canary Mission with Israeli intelligence and American financiers, akin to Israeli espionage in the US.

Meanwhile, the Haaretz newspaper, in a 2018 report, revealed that funds were transferred to Canary Mission through the so-called non-profit organization, Megamot Shalom, which notably lacks an official website or spokesperson.

The report disclosed that Jonathan Bash, residing in Jerusalem, managed the organization and is owned by Royal Research, a company providing research and data collection services.

It pointed out that Bash collaborated with Ben Packer, an American-born far-right rabbi, who was one of the partners in Megamot Shalom.

Forward, an American publication for Jews, also uncovered that the American Helen Diller Family Foundation, controlled by the San Francisco Jewish Community Federation, donated $100,000 to Canary Mission through Megamot Shalom.

It drew attention to the donation that was facilitated through the Israel Center Fund, a New York-based organization that acts as an intermediary in transferring tens of millions of dollars annually to various groups associated with right-wing Israeli organizations and Jewish settlements in Israel.

- Israeli intelligence links

Haaretz stressed that Israeli intelligence agencies use data gathered by Canary Mission as a tool to identify those to be subjected to entry bans into Israel.

The profiling by Canary Mission of Lara al-Kasim, who went to Israel in 2018 to pursue a master's degree at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem but was detained and deported, supports claims that Israeli intelligence actively employs the site.

- Harvard students and Gaza war

Recent events have brought attention to Canary Mission targeting Harvard students who opposed Israel's attacks on Gaza.

Student organizations from Harvard came together on Oct. 10 to publish a letter in Harvard Crimson opposing the "destruction" of Palestinians.

Immediately after its release, the Canary Mission website created online profiles of editorial board members of the school’s newspaper leaders from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee and clubs that signed the letter.

The profiles were added to the website with the headline: "Harvard students support terrorism."

- Tactics of attack by Canary Mission

Canary Mission, aiming to suppress individuals who speak out against Israel's occupation and atrocities and to mete out punishment according to its ideology, typically carries out attacks on the individuals they have profiled in three distinct dimensions.

The website creates separate profiles for students and faculty members by sharing personal information and photos on the site.

Subsequently, each individual or organization-specific profile, after being introduced with accusations of "antisemitism", "opposition to Israel" or "support for terrorism," is subjected to attempts at "demonization" from anonymous accounts on social media.

Then Canary Mission supports the attacks on the individuals they have profiled through posts on social media, with the aim of harassment and intimidation. The posts often take the form of insults, harassment and even death threats against profiled individuals.

As a result, individuals subjected to Canary Mission's hate-filled accusations and public defamation come under psychological pressure.

The Twitter account of Canary Mission, known as X at that time, was suspended on Feb. 26, 2018, primarily due to activities that often violated the platform's rules. But the account was reactivated two days later.

* Writing by Seda Sevencan in Istanbul