‘They’re Dogs’: Georgetown University Places Staff Member on Leave Over Antisemitic Posts
Aneesa Johnson. Photo: Screenshot
Georgetown University in Washington, DC has placed a recently hired staff member on administrative leave after new reports revealed her antisemitic social media posts.
“We were recently made aware of hateful, antisemitic social media commentary alleged to have been made by a recently hired staff member who started working at the School of Foreign Service earlier this week,” Joel Hellman, dean of Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS), said in a statement. “The employee has been placed on immediate administrative leave, pending an investigation of the comments … We strongly condemn antisemitism in all its forms.”
Aneesa Johnson was hired by SFS to be the “primary point of contact” for master’s students on “everything academic.” Antisemitism watchdog groups were quick to flag that Johnson has a history of antisemitic social media posts and involvement in anti-Israel activity. Canary Mission, a group that tracks antisemitism online, has a lengthy profile on Johnson’s history.
According to social media posts published by Canary Mission, in July 2015, Johnson tweeted, “Ever since going to [Northwestern University] I have a deep seeded [sic] hate for Zio [sic] b—ches. They bring out the worst in me.”
Zio is a derogatory reference to Zionists that is often used as an antisemitic slur.
Johnson also posted, “You know why I call them Zio b—ches, because they’re dogs.”
A week later, according to the Canary Mission, Johnson retweeted an unflattering picture of an Orthodox Jew that was captioned, “When the whole world hates you bc you a thief and you grow up looking like shaytan [the devil] #GrowingUpIsraeli.”
Georgetown did not respond to a request for comment for this story. However, Hellman said in his statement that the school was “not aware of the alleged social media comments, many of which date back to 2015,” when Johnson was hired.
Johnson’s extreme anti-Zionist activity has been documented for nearly a decade by Canary Mission, a group that compiles reports on pro-terror and antisemitic activists in higher education. In 2015, as a student of Northwestern University, Johnson joined Students for Justice in Palestine and vocally supported a boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) resolution proposed to the school’s student government. She also served as the group’s events coordinator.
Later, Johnson worked for PW Perspective, a far-left outlet based in Virginia. In 2021, during Israel’s Operation of the Guardian of the Walls, she said on an episode of a podcast the organization produces that US support for Israel is the result of “the really powerful Zionist lobby that advocates for policies, statements, voting patterns that benefit the State of Israel.”
Israel War Room on Thursday cast doubt on Georgetown University SFS’s saying that it did not know about Johnson’s history.
“Her Canary Mission profile is the first thing you see when you Google her name,” the group said in a statement.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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