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The editor-in-chief of an academic journal says he was fired for sharing a satirical article published by The Onion about people dying in Gaza and facing backlash for not condemning Hamas.
Michael Eisen, a professor of genetics at the University of California, Berkeley, who until recently ran the prominent open-source scientific journal eLife, based in Cambridge, United Kingdom, tweeted on Monday about his resignation.
I have been informed that I am being replaced as editor-in-chief of @eLife for retweeting an article from @TheOnion that draws attention to the indifference to the lives of Palestinian civilians, Eisen posted on X.
On October 13, nearly a week after Hamas terrorists launched a deadly surprise attack on Israel that killed nearly 1,400 people, Eisen shared The Onion’s article titled, Dying Gazans Criticized for Not Using Last Words to Condemn the Hamas.
In an accompanying post, Eisen wrote: The Onion speaks with more courage, insight, and moral clarity than the leaders of all academic institutions combined. I wish there was a university @TheOnion.
Eisen, who is Jewish, was quickly criticized on social media for his comments but stood his ground, Science Magazine reported.
Every sane person on Earth is horrified and traumatized by what Hamas did and wishes it would never happen again, he wrote in a subsequent post. Even more so as a Jew with an Israeli family. But I am also horrified by the collective punishment that is already being meted out to Gazans and by the worst that is yet to come.
The outspoken academic also defended The Onion, arguing that the parody newspaper is not downplaying the situation. And neither do I. These articles are using satire to make an extremely serious point about this horrible tragedy.
Eisen’s comments set off a firestorm in the scientific community, with some academic colleagues calling on him to resign from the position at eLife, which he has held since 2019.
Yaniv Erlich, an Israeli-American computer scientist and CEO of the company Eleven Therapeutics, criticized Eisen for not expressing support for his colleagues in Israel.
And now you dare to give us military advice from your privileged position of security, Erlich seethed with rage. What moral bankruptcy.
In response to the chorus of voices demanding Eisen’s dismissal and calling for a boycott of eLife among researchers, a petition was launched urging the journal’s publisher, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, not to reprimand the editor-in-chief for his public stance. comments.
Our position is not based on the merits of Eisen’s views, the petition said. Instead, we believe that penalizing Eisen would set a dismal precedent for free speech in academia.
Following Eisen’s firing, Lara Urban, reviewing editor at eLife, tweeted that she was resigning in protest.
Mike’s firing for expressing his personal opinions sets a dangerous precedent for free speech in our academic community and validates cyber-bullying as a legitimate and successful tool for getting scientists with controversial opinions fired, Urban wrote.
The Post reached out to eLife for comment on Eisens’ firing on Tuesday and was awaiting a response.
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