Emily Wilder
Overview
Emily Wilder was fired by the Associated Press (AP) from her position as a news associate for reportedly violating the company’s social media policy in 2021.Wilder has expressed support for violent protesters and anti-Israel agitators and defended violent speech. She is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace and participated in the group’s #returnthebirthright initiative, launched against the Birthright Jewish heritage tour.
Wilder has also trivialized anti-Semitism and was reportedly an “active member” of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Stanford University (Stanford). She is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
As of May 2021, Wilder’s LinkedIn page said she graduated from Stanford in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in History. In December 2017, Wilder’s LinkedIn said that she was a JVP “Summer Fellow”in Oakland, California, during the summer of 2017.
On April 11, 2021, Wilder announced on Twitter that she would be working at the Associated Press (AP) as a “news associate here in phoenix.”
Employment Controversy
On May 3, 2021, Wilder began her employment at AP.On May 18, 2021, the Stanford College Republicans club wrote several tweets highlighting Wilder’s anti-Israel activity. The posts included a tweet in which Wilder called late Jewish philanthropist Sheldon Adelson a “naked mole rat,” a November 6, 2019 op-ed she wrote that referred to Jewish commentator Ben Shapiro as “a little turd” and other evidence showing her SJP and JVP activism.
On May 19, 2021, Wilder was fired by the AP. The AP reportedly confirmed that Wilder was “dismissed for violations of AP’s social media policy during her time at AP.”
Wilder reportedly admitted that while she may have indeed “violated the company’s social media policies, that ban employees from voicing their personal political opinions,” she believed that those policies were “so nebulous, almost by design, so that they can be selectively enforced ... in a way that polices and harms the most vulnerable journalists among us.”
On May 22, 2021, Wilder posted a statement on her termination from AP on Twitter. She insisted she was a “scapegoat” and referred to herself as a “victim” of a policy of censoring journalists, particularly Palestinian journalists and journalists of color. Wilder concluded by stating she would “not be intimidated into silence” and that she “would “be back soon.”
Supporting Violent Protesters
On March 30, 2018, Wilder posted a video to Facebook of violent riots taking place on Israel’s border with Gaza. The video’s caption said: “#GreatMarchReturn: 10 Palestinians killed and over 550 wounded during #LandDay” march.”On March 30, 2018, some 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza approached Israel’s border to take part in “Land Day Protests” or the “March of Return.” The violent demonstrations were instigated by Hamas on the Israeli-Gaza border. Participants declared their intention to harm Jews across the border under the pretext of “peaceful resistance.”
March participants sent scores of kites bearing explosive devices across Israel’s border to burn Israeli crops and homes. Rioters also made numerous attempts to breach Israel’s border fence, which caused the Israeli Defense Forces to respond with live fire.
On May 14, 2018, Wilder shared a post to Facebook that said: “The right of return for Gazans is not just about justice, it’s about life itself.”
The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel.
That same day, Wilder shared on Facebook side by side photos. The first photo depicted Jared and Ivanka Kushner, the son-in-law and daughter of former U.S. President Donald Trump at a ceremony inaugurating a new U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.
The second photo depicted a man holding a man who appears to be injured at the violent riots, with smoke plumes in the background. The caption reads: “Left: #Jerusalem
Right: #Gaza (Photos taken at the same time this afternoon in Palestine ).”
Also on May 14, 2018, Wilder posted an article on Facebook about the violent riots and captioned it: “52 dead today alone. 8 children under 16. How can people celebrate Trump’s embassy move when this is what it means and legitimizes?”
On May 16, 2018, a Hamas senior official, Salah al-Bardawil, stated that 50 out of 62 protesters killed during the May 14 Gaza border protest were Hamas operatives. Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) also claimed that three of its members were killed at the same protest.
Also on May 16, 2018, Wilder posted to Facebook: “Misconceptions/lies to look out for in the media's coverage of Gaza: ‘Clashes’ = Israeli soldiers sniping at unarmed, brutalized, impoverished and starving Gazans are not *clashes* between two equally powered groups. These are massacres. ‘Border fence’ = No, it's an apartheid wall and a siege/blockade, illegal according to international law...”
On May 17, 2018, Wilder posted a meme to Facebook depicting a person representing the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], looking at a butterfly labeled: “Shooting live ammunition, tear gas and heavy artillery into a crowd hundreds of yards away.” The meme was captioned: “Is this self-defense?”
Supporting Anti-Israel Agitators
On December 31, 2017, Wilder posted on Facebook: “...Freedom now for Ahed Tamimi!”On February 8, 2018, Wilder posted on Facebook an article in defense of anti-Israel professor David Palumbo-Liu.
Liu has excused terrorism, demonized Israel and is a supporter of the BDS movement and a member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott (USACBI) Organizing Collective.
Defending Violent Speech
On July 24, 2018, Wilder posted on Facebook in defense of fellow Stanford SJP member Hamzeh Daoud. Daoud earlier reportedly posted on Facebook, threatening to “physically fight zionists on campus...if someone comes at me with their ‘israel is a democracy’ bullshit. :)”Daoud’s Facebook post continued: “and after i abolish your ass i'll go ahead and work every day for the rest of my life to abolish your petty ass ethnosupremacist settler-colonial state.”
Wilder’s Facebook post defending Daoud said: “Classic white conservative (Zionist) move to feel absurdly, viscerally threatened by a clearly misrepresented Facebook post that was immediately edited, and then in response start a massive smear campaign against a student of color...”
Hours after his initial post, Daoud reportedly changed his Facebook post to use the word “intellectually” instead of “physically.” Daoud also reportedly resigned from his dormitory Resident Advisor (RA) position after his statement gained media attention.
Also on July 24, 2018, Wilder posted on Facebook, again defending Daoud: “Stanford needs a lesson on material harm. Individual undergrad reacting to apartheid by saying they will fight a vague ideological group (and then quickly revising to say ‘intellectually fight’): not dangerous to anyone, akin to someone angrily saying ‘imma punch somebody.’”
Daoud was reportedly characterizedby another Stanford student as “one of the most aggressive and prolific anti-Israel figures at Stanford.”
That same day, Wilder wrote on Facebook: “Question: would I be subject to the same violently vitriolic condemnation if I said I was going to punch some nazis?”
Also on July 24, 2018 Wilder wrote an op-ed for the Stanford Daily titled: “A defense of Palestinian pain on campus.”
Wilder wrote that Daoud was a “third generation Palestinian refugee” and “that although apartheid has effectively been the Israeli norm since his grandparents were expelled decades ago,” his violent speech stemmed from “unimaginable pain” from “ethnic apartheid.”
Condemning Jewish Heritage Tour
On December 21, 2017, Wilder appeared in a JVP Facebook video and said [00:00:23]: “It’s fundamentally unjust that I, as a Jewish person, am born with the entitlement to a land which Palestinians were ethnically cleansed and displaced.”Wilder continued, “I think Birthright fundamentally erases diasporic Jewishness, as well as erases Palestinian history and identity.”
On December 3, 2017, Wilder co-led a Return the Birthright protest outside the Taglit-Birthright offices in New York City, where JVP members assembled to chant anti-Birthright slogans.
Wilder spoke on a megaphone during the protest and said [00:12:29]: “This year marks the 69 years since the Nakba or the ethnic cleansing and displacement of Palestinians in Palestine in 1928, which is also the beginning of the occupation.”
She claimed [00:13:32] that “Birthright trips are nothing more than ethnic nationalist propaganda,” and concluded [00:15:05]: “We are the next generation of Jews and we must decide to actively boycott Birthright. ”
On December 4, 2017, Wilder posted a photo on Facebook from the protest that featured JVP activist Esther Tsvayg. Wilder and Tsvayg held a sign that said: “Wherever we live, that’s our homeland.”
Also on December 4, 2017, Wilder wrote a post on Facebook, claiming that Birthright had an “agenda of racism and exclusion championed by the Israeli government…”
On November 26, 2017, Wilder wrote a Facebook post in which she declared that “...the nation-state of Israel does not represent a part of my Jewish identity or a "homeland" to which I must return. Because diaspora is beautiful and diaspora is where I will stay.”
Return the Birthright Campaign
In September of 2017, JVP issued its #ReturnTheBirthright campaign manifesto, calling on American Jews to boycott the Birthright Israel (Birthright) program. Birthright was founded by Jewish philanthropists “in 1999 to address the growing divide between young Diaspora Jewish adults and the land and people of Israel.”After decades of demographic decline in the American Jewish community, Birthright set out “to strengthen Jewish identity, build a lasting bond with the land and people of Israel, and reinforce the solidarity of Jewish people worldwide.” The program offers “the gift of a life-changing, 10-day trip to Israel to young Jewish adults between the ages of 18 and 26.”
JVP’s anti-Birthright campaign was launched precisely to coincide with “the very moment that college students across America are returning to campus and registration for Birthright winter visits are underway.”
The #returnthebirthright manifesto accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and alleged “the modern state of Israel is predicated on the ongoing erasure of Palestinians.”
The text claimed: “We reject the offer of a free trip to a state that does not represent us, a trip that is only ‘free’ because it has been paid for by the dispossession of Palestinians.”
The manifesto concluded: “And as we reject this, we commit to promoting the right to return of Palestinian refugees… Israel is not our Birthright… Return the Birthright.”
Trivializing Anti-Semitism
On May 2, 2019, Wilder co-wrote, with fellow anti-Israel activist Esther Tsvayg, an op-ed for the Stanford Daily, titled: “White supremacy is anti-Semitic. Anti-Zionism is not.”Wilder and Tsvayg defended U.S. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, for “pointing out the outsized power and influence of the Israel lobby” and asserted this was “not a reiteration of antisemitic tropes.”
Ilhan Omar was elected to the U.S. Congress in 2018. In February 2019, top Congressional leaders denounced Omar for tweeting anti-Semitic remarks. She has also demonized Israel and endorsed BDS, including introducing a pro-BDS resolution in the U.S. Congress.
The authors went on to say: “This is an important conversation to have now more than ever as Israel lobby money grows, as does its influence over politics.”
Wilder and Tsvayg also attempted to draw a parallel between criticisms of Omar and “opportunistic accusations of antisemitism against students of color – specifically progressive women of color.”
The authors also referred to Israel as an “ethnostate that murders human rights journalists, detains Palestinian children and deflects these conversations at all costs with perilously false accusations of antisemitism.”
On May 6, 2019, Wilder and Tsvayg wrote another op-ed for the Stanford Daily following a controversy involving Stanford SJP and JVP.
In preparation for an SJP Palestine Awareness Week (PAW) event featuring controversial anti-Israel Jewish cartoonist Eli Valley, SJP reportedly posted flyers in a number of residential areas featuring Valley’s cartoons to advertise their event.
Eli Valley has been condemned by former National Director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Abraham Foxman for depicting “Jews and evangelical Christians...as blood-sucking monsters.”
Former Op-Ed Editor of the New York Times and target of Valley’s work, Bari Weiss, reportedly endorsed the assertion that Valley’s work traffics in “hatred that gloms onto Jews and the Jewish State.”
In their op-ed, Wilder and Tsvayg apologized for the posting of the flyers but added that: “we maintain that it is absurd to call Eli Valley’s art, or Eli Valley himself, antisemitic” because he “is a Jewish American artist.”
On May 6, 2019, SJP and JVP removed the flyers.
Anti-Israel Campus Activism
On May 8, 2019, Wilder co-hosted a JVP Stanford event called: “Anti-Zionism is Not Antisemitism Teach-in.”On April 16, 2018 Wilder posted to Facebook about an event she was hosting with fellow Jewish anti-Israel activist Michaela Ben Izzy. Wilder wrote: “Friends! Izzy and I are leading a teach-in on the history of Palestine, followed by a virtual reality tour of everyday life under occupation. Join us — Dinner will be served!!!”
Wilder’s Facebook post included the event’s Facebook page, which featured a series of misleading maps. The maps claim that lands once controlled by Britain, Egypt and Jordan as autonomous “Palestinian land,” were purportedly stolen by Israel.
In February 2016, publisher McGraw-Hill Education recalled copies of a college-level textbook that contained the fraudulent maps. In October 2015, the United States cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.
On October 30, 2017, Wilder shared an article on Facebook, written by JVP at Stanford, titled: “Why is Hillel at Stanford supporting an Islamophobic group?” Wilder commented on the article, “still waiting for Hillel at Stanford University to respond…”
In the article, which was published in the Stanford Daily, JVP at Stanford criticized Stanford’s Hillel and Chabad student chapters for hosting a group of IDF reservists called “Reservists on Duty,” following an incident that took place at the University of California, Irvine (UCI).
On May 10, 2017, SJP at UCI attempted to shut down a panel event featuring the IDF reservists, and were later sanctioned by UCI for disrupting the event.
Wilder indicated on Facebook that she “Went” to a Stanford SJP event on May 17, 2017, called: “Join Students for Justice in Palestine in the #Saltwater Challenge.”
Wilder also indicated that she “Went” to Stanford SJP-hosted event featuring Aarab Barghouthi on the “Palestinian Dignity Hunger Strike.”
The phrase “Dignity Strike” referred to a hunger strike also initiated by Marwan Barghouti, on April 16, 2017.
On April 14, 2018, Wilder shared the event page on Facebook for Stanford’s Palestine Awareness Week and captioned the post: “YALLAH”- slang for “let’s go.”
Palestine Awareness Week (PAW) is a re-branding for American audiences of Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), originally presented as “an international series of events that seek to raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people” and build support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
Wilder also indicated on Facebook that she “went” to Stanford SJP’s Palestine Awareness Week, on April 24-28, 2017.
On April 11, 2018, Wilder posted on Facebook about an event hosted by SJP and JVP, featuring Haneen Zoabi as part of PAW. Wilder wrote: “Topics will include the colonial nature of the Israeli state and the recent shift in Israeli politics from liberal Zionism towards fascism.”
Haneen Zoabi, a former member of the Israeli Knesset, has a long history of inciting violence. In 2014, she was suspended from the legislature after defending the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers by the terror group Hamas, and who were later found executed in a field. In 2015, a criminal investigation was opened against Zoabi after she reportedly condoned anti-Israel violence and called for a new intifada.
Promoting BDS
On October 16, 2019, Wilder wrote another op-ed piece in the Stanford Daily titled: “How we remember can heal or harm: the Halle shooting and ethnic nationalism.”In the piece, Wilder promoted BDS, writing that it was “an organized way of attempting to hold Israel accountable for its treatment of Palestinians.”
JVP
JVP was founded in Berkeley, California in 1996, as an activist group with an emphasis on the “Jewish tradition” of peace, social justice and human rights. The organization is currently led by Rebecca Vilkomerson and its board members include Israel critics Naomi Klein, Judith Butler, Noam Chomsky and Tony Kushner.
JVP, which generally employs civil disobedience tactics to disrupt pro-Israel speakers and events, consists of American Jews and non-Jewish “allies” highly critical of Israeli policies. A staunch supporter of the BDS movement, JVP claims to aim its campaigns at companies that either support the Israeli military (Hewlett-Packard) or are active in the West Bank (SodaStream).
Although several Jewish groups critical of Israeli policies, like J Street and Partners for a Progressive Israel, make efforts to operate within the mainstream American Jewish community, JVP functions outside. The group is often criticized for serving as a tokenized Jewish voice for the pro-Palestinian camp and is widely regarded as the BDS movement’s “Jewish wing.”
JVP denies the notion of “Jewish peoplehood” and has even gone so far as to refer to its own Ashkenazi (Jews who spent the Diaspora in European countries) leadership as “white supremacy inside of JVP.”
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has accused JVP of being “the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States,” and said the group “exploits Jewish culture and rituals to reassure its own supporters that opposition to Israel not only does not contradict, but is actually consistent with, Jewish value.”
The ADL also claimed that “JVP consistently co-sponsors rallies to oppose Israeli military policy that are marked by signs and slogans comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, demonizing Jews and voicing support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.”
According to the ADL website, JVP “uses its Jewish identity to shield the anti-Israel movement from allegations of anti-Semitism and provide it with a greater degree of legitimacy and credibility.”
SJP
SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.
The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.
SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Students Association (MSA) campus chapters.
SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.
SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.
Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.
BDS
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.
One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”
Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”
In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.
BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.
The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.
Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.
BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.
