BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA: Michael Eisen, an Academic journal editor-in-chief, has been terminated from his position after he reshared a tweet about people dying in Gaza.
The present University of California, Berkeley geneticist, shared his dismissal on Monday, October 23, over a tweet.
“I have been informed that I am being replaced as the editor-in-chief of @eLife for retweeting a @TheOnion piece that calls out indifference to the lives of Palestinian civilians,” he wrote.
What was The Onion story based on?
On October 13, days after Hamas militants attacked Israel, which witnessed the death of thousands of innocent lives, a satirical news headline from ‘The Onion,’ titled ‘Dying Gazans Criticized For Not Using Last Words To Condemn Hamas.'
He also wrote praising the outlet, “The Onion speaks with more courage, insight and moral clarity than the leaders of every academic institution put together. I wish there were an Onion university.”
The statement was also released on Eisen’s dismissal by the governing body of the journal, eLife.
“We thank Mike Eisen for his creativity and vision in building eLife’s transformative new publishing model. Mike has been given clear feedback from the board that his approach to leadership, communication and social media has at key times been detrimental to the cohesion of the community we are trying to build and hence to eLife’s mission,” it said.
“It is against this background that a further incidence of this behaviour has contributed to the board’s decision. The board remains committed to eLife’s 'Publish – Review – Curate' model and to the important role that early-career scientists play in making it a success," it added.
Petition against Michael Eisen's termination
After a slew of online criticism of Michael’s reshared post from The Onion, the intellectual defended himself, as per Daily Mail.
“The Onion is not making light of the situation. And nor am I. These articles are using satire to make a deadly serious point about this horrific tragedy,” he tweeted.
“Every sane person on Earth is horrified and traumatized by what Hamas did and wants it to never happen again. All the more so as a Jew with Israeli family. But I am also horrified by the collective punishment already being meted out on Gazans, and the worse that is about to come," the tweet added.
A petition was also floated in support of Eisen. It claimed, "Our stance is not based on the merits of Eisen's views. Rather, we believe that penalizing Eisen would establish a discouraging precedent for freedom of expression in academia."
