Zionists have tried to silence me through doxing and intimidation. They won’t succeed.

On January 31, 2024, a billboard truck, a box truck covered in LED screens that publicly advertise or display information, drove around downtown New York City defaming me as part of a Zionist rally. On February 14, a billboard truck harassed teachers and the overall school community at an elementary school in Brooklyn for their pro-Palestinian views. Similar trucks have been used to harass students and staff at Columbia, Harvard, University of California at Berkley, and various City University of New York campuses where students have spoken out against the “Israeli” genocide of Palestinians (in using quotes when discussing “Israel” I reject the premise of the entity – the a settler-colonial project invented through the forced displacement, dispossession, ethnic cleansing, and incremental genocide of the native Palestinians – and instead recognize the entirety of the region as my homeland, Palestine). 

On February 28, I was harassed at the school where I teach by a billboard truck. The truck drove around our school building for hours, defaming me as “New York City’s Leading Anti-Semite,” disrupting education and intimidating the community. Later that day, my family and I were harassed at our home by that same truck and menaced by a camera crew pretending to be journalists. 

Billboard trucks have been weaponized as tools for harassment and doxing on college campuses, at schools, accompanying rallies, and for menacing in general public spaces. This isn’t the first time I’d been doxed by Zionists, but it was the first time it occurred in person. It was the first time they terrorized me at my home. Make no mistake, I was targeted because of my identity and convictions; I was doxed because I am a Muslim Palestinian. I am not the first person to fall victim to these serial abusers, and I won’t be the last. 

In their campaign to terrorize, silence, and kill the opposition, Zionists have added doxing to their arsenal. No one is safe from this public attack. It is so easy to look up a person’s private information with the intent to terrorize them virtually and in public. Bad actors have used doxing to harass people for years now. These people have gotten better at public harassment in ways that avoid accountability in recent years. They are better at terrorizing others and getting away with it. Their doxing to harass has extended to the abuse of students, public school teachers, and school community members. I am a New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) teacher. In New York City, Chancellor David Banks has done nothing to protect the NYCPS staff and community from public doxing and retaliation by Zionist staff members and their external affiliates other than offer hollow platitudes and engage in viewpoint discrimination. His inaction has compromised the safety and security of NYCPS staff and community members who are targeted by Zionists.

My story began after a local tabloid, the New York Post, reported my public condemnation of Banks. In the aftermath of the early October “Israeli” escalation of violence against civilians in the Gaza Strip that had killed thousands of Palestinians, Banks emailed NYCPS staff centering the loss of “Israeli” life and dehumanizing Palestinians. I condemned, and still condemn, him for not once mentioning Palestine, Palestinians, the West Bank, or Gaza in his initial communication with staff. 

The New York Post highlighted my anti-Zionist stance and, for three weeks, repeatedly posed and engaged in a call to action for people to harass my school community and call for my termination. They chose to begin their telling of events with October 7, 2023, ignoring the well-documented decades of blockade and besiegement of Gaza by Zionist forces. In selectively spotlighting tweets I made, they chose to ignore the many that shared primary source accounts of “Israeli” human rights abuses and contraventions of international law. They chose to ignore the decades of illegal annexation and settlement of Palestinian land in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They chose to ignore the over 75 years of expulsion, ethnic cleansing, and incremental genocide of Palestinians by “Israel.” By choosing to begin their storytelling on October 7, the New York Post, Banks, countless other government officials, and the rest of the mainstream media chose to collaborate with the dehumanization and current escalation of the genocide of the Palestinian people. 

As of March 1, five months into “Israel’s” escalation of their genocide of Palestinians, at least 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, with more than 12,550 of them being children and thousands more presumed dead under the rubble from “Israeli” bombardment of civilian centers. At least 70,000 people are injured. Widespread calls for a ceasefire, divestment from “Israel”, and justice have fallen on deaf ears in the West. Zionist rationalizations of genocide, self-victimization, and wholesale terrorizing of ceasefire advocates often counter these moral calls.

While the New York Post was the first aggressor, it was hardly the last. The newly formed NYCPS Alliance worked with the New York Post to more effectively dox NYCPS community members using resources uniquely available to them. The NYCPS Alliance is a Zionist hate group masquerading as a city-sanctioned community organization, founded and run by an NYCPS instructional coach, a school psychologist, and a classroom history teacher. They have used the NYCPS name and resources to target, discriminate against, and dox other NYCPS staff whose identity and activism they disagree with. They are emboldened by the NYCPS’s selective protection of Zionist staff such as the incident at Hillcrest High School, and widespread selective action against pro-Palestinian community members. Despite the public knowledge of their affiliation and actions, Banks has yet to condemn or order cessation of their NYCPS-branded harassment. The first time I was the victim of a defamatory doxing truck was at an NYCPS Alliance-sponsored event.

Doxing with impunity is on the rise. The media’s repeated dehumanization of Muslims, Palestinians, Arabs at large, and our allies has facilitated this abuse. The doxing of many NYCPS staff and community members by Zionist organizations, and the failure of the NYCPS leadership to protect those victims, signaled to tabloids and hate groups that it is open season. Across the city, Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, Black, brown, and allied school staff, teachers, paraprofessionals, parents, and other community members have suffered doxing, ongoing harassment, death threats, and even bioterrorism for their pro-Palestinian advocacy. The dehumanization and selective disciplinary action against Muslims, Palestinians, Arabs in general, and our allies by NYCPS leadership has emboldened these bad actors. In his effort to appease Zionist interests, Banks left the people he was supposed to lead and represent to suffer this abuse. 

The NYCPS leadership, specifically David Banks, needs to take a stand to protect their communities. What started as online harassment has manifested into real-world terrorization. Banks needs to act before Zionists escalate from doxing to violence, and before the people who have been harmed mentally and emotionally are harmed physically. The violent attacks and murders of those who would speak for Palestine serve as precedent; people’s lives are at stake.