A young journalist was fired by the Associated Press just over a week ago for her anti-Israel military social media posts. Yahoo! reports 22-year-old Emily Wilder was fired over purported social media policy violations.

Wilder released a statement in which she asked, “What does it mean for this industry that even sharing the painful experiences of Palestinians or interrogating the language we use to describe them can be seen as irredeemably ‘biased?’” She added, “I will not be intimidated into silence. I will be back soon.”

Yahoo! reports that Wilder said that her editors had guaranteed her that the pro Palestinian posts, which were made while she was at University, would not harm her employment, but that right-wing activists, politicians and media figures had lead a “smear campaign” that ultimately had led to her dismissal. Wilder had graduated from Stanford University in 2020. She was fired less than 48 hours after Stanford College Republicans attacked her in posts. Wilder said, “I was not given an explanation for what social media policy I had violated.”

Wilder further added that she felt terrified that as a young woman, whom, when she most needed the support from the institution she was employed at, was abandoned by it. She added that as a member of the Jewish community, she had been called anti-Semitic and criticized, and punished. She said that the termination was, “an opportunity to make me a scapegoat.”

Meanwhile, over 100 AP journalists have signed an open letter protesting Wilder’s dismissal, which followed hot on the heels of Israel having destroyed the building housing AP offices as well as other media , in Gaza.

Umm Muhammed Umar