NYU student punished for writing F-word on Israeli mail bag

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A report by The Electronic Intifada discusses another victim of the Israeli weapon of choice, anti-semitism. The administration of New York University is looking into a graduate student worker for alleged "vandalism" of an Israeli mail services bag.

Items delivered to the library by an Israeli vendor were wrapped in an Israeli postal bag. The bag was disposed of and left in a recycling bin in July.

Staff attorney at the civil rights group Palestine Legal, Dylan Saba, said that Naye Idriss who was one of three Arabic language translation workers at the Bobst Library in the New York college, saw the discarded mailbag that had been sitting in the bin for days.

Saba told The Electronic Intifada that Idriss “picked up a pen and wrote ‘f***’ over the word ‘Israel,’ and then maybe the next day, she wrote ‘Free Palestine’ on it.”

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The university has now charged Idriss with writing "potentially anti-Semitic words" on the discarded bag, despite the fact that nothing she wrote was anti-Jewish.

Because of the years-long campaigns of repression and smears against NYU students who criticize "Israel" and its Zionist ideology, as well as at other universities in the United States and Canada, Idriss knew she would be targeted if she expressed support for Palestinian rights on legitimate campus property.

“But the fact that it was in the trash and it was a trash bag, I didn’t think twice about it, really,” Idriss told The Electronic Intifada.

NYU graduate student Naye Idriss is being investigated by the school for vandalism and antisemitic bigotry after she wrote "F*ck" Israel and "Free Palestine" on a mail bag in the Bobst Library.

Idriss has hired Palestine Legal to defend her vandalism. pic.twitter.com/m0zDmpnHll

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) January 30, 2023

When the administration learned that the binned bag had been scrawled on, it sent an internal email to library supervisors threatening disciplinary action for "anti-'Israel' sentiment" and referring the incident to the campus safety office.

The university then informed Idriss in November that she was being investigated for violating student conduct. In response, Idriss contacted her union representatives, who then contacted lawyers with the civil rights organization Palestine Legal.

Pressure on Idriss

The administration initially classified Idriss's investigation and disciplinary charges as a student conduct issue, denying her union representation, despite the fact that she is a graduate student worker and the incident occurred while she was at work.

Saba explained that as a union member, she has the right to have a union representative present in any workplace disciplinary proceeding in which a punishment is in the dispute or potentially applicable.

Idriss and her union representatives warned the university that NYU would be infringing on her right to representation. However, the administration attempted to continue pursuing the entire investigation as a student conduct issue, Idriss’s representative and a shop steward with the Union for Graduate Workers at NYU, Tova Benjamin, told The Electronic Intifada.

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Since they kept up the pressure, union representatives were able to successfully intervene and accompany Idriss to a hearing with the university's human resources department in late December.

Saba went on to say that the only thing at stake during that hearing was "whether or not Naye committed vandalism or defacement of NYU property," which included a debate over whether trash was property, “But none of the substance of the message was at issue at all in the hearing,” he said.

He noted that the university admitted during the hearing that it "had suspected it was Naye but didn't know it was Naye," confirming that the university singled out one of the only students of Arab descent as the perpetrator.

The other revealing admission, he said, “was that this vandalism charge would not have been an issue if it were not an anti-'Israel' message.”

Israeli lobby pressure

NYU adopted parts of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s “working definition” of anti-Semitism in 2021, in a voluntary settlement with the US Department of Education.

Israeli lobby groups filed a federal complaint in an attempt to censor students’ political expression at NYU.

The IHRA definition, promoted by "Israel" and its lobby, conflates criticism of "Israel" on the one hand with anti-Jewish bigotry on the other.

Notably, NYU explicitly removed examples from the IHRA definition that portray Palestinian rights activism and criticism of "Israel" as anti-Jewish bigotry. However, lawfare organizations like the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, led by career "Israel" lobbyist Kenneth Marcus, have been pressuring the NYU administration to reinstate the "Israel"-related clauses.

Discrimination against Idriss 

Meanwhile, the university did not rehire Idriss, which is unusual for student workers. Her union argues that this is discriminatory and an unfair labor practice.

Saba said that in early December, the three Arabic language student workers at Bobst Library learned through word-of-mouth that their positions were being eliminated. When they inquired about the rehiring process, they were told to apply for other positions. But Idriss “was the only one not rehired,” he said.

“So the effect is that after this incident goes down, Naye effectively loses her job going forward, obviously with no disciplinary process, and pretextual excuses from the administration. It’s very troubling.”

Idriss's union filed a formal grievance against the university on January 9th for its discriminatory hiring practices. “Naye has been accused of bigotry and vandalism – two serious charges,” union representative Tova Benjamin said.

“Everything about the way that her case has been handled has been exceptional,” she said.

The administration's refusal to rehire Idriss is clear retaliation for union activity as well as political solidarity with Palestine, according to Benjamin.

Daughter of an advocate 

Idriss's father, Samah Idriss, was one of the founders of the Campaign to Boycott Supporters of "Israel" in Lebanon after the Jenin massacre in 2002, and played a leading role in furthering the movement's influence.

He had a strong commitment to Palestine and its cause, which he used as a compass in his battle.

On November 25th, after a struggle with cancer, Samah Idris passed away. Idris dedicated his life to Palestine and the struggle against normalization with the occupation. He was editor-in-chief of the prominent Al-Adab literary magazine from 1992 onward.

For many years, critics of Israeli policies, including Jewish critics, have been wrongly accused of being "anti-Semites", But for the past two years, those who preserved the status quo have made this charge the focus of their plan to discredit the expanding movement for justice in Palestine.

Anti-Semitism is defined as any form of hostility, prejudice, or discrimination against Jews. Anti-Semitism is defined as [an act of] hostility toward or discrimination against Jews as a religious, ethnic, or racial group.

Such re-definitions and attempts to appropriate terminology reveal a systematic effort to equate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism in order to demonize and presume that hate of "Israel" is comparable to the hatred of Jews.