Harassment and Professional Retaliation
There is a famous scientist here in Luxembourg who conducted extensive harassment against me. He complained to the police many times and contacted shop owners, always anonymously, but eventually we managed to identify who was sending these complaints. When the police found nothing against me and took no action as he wished, he escalated the matter to the Minister of Education. The Minister did not fire me initially, but then he sent them six of my Instagram Stories, taken completely out of context. Based solely on those decontextualised posts, the Minister of Education dismissed me from my position.
One of the posts he cited was about what settlers do to animals—killing them. I had written that Israelis were doing this, and they used that to claim I am against Jewish people because I oppose Israel. This conflation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism is something I reject entirely. After I finished work one day, I found a death threat on my car—a letter constructed from cut newspaper letters stating "You have only 3 days to live." I want to be clear: opposing Israel is not antisemitic. I will never accept the accusation that I am antisemitic, because I have never been one, and I have never posted anything against Jewish people.
Personal History and Moral Obligation
I grew up in an environment shaped by genocide. My family was killed in the Bosnian genocide. Family members of mine are buried in the Srebrenica memorial center. How could I not speak about a genocide in Gaza? What kind of person would I be if I remained silent? Even during our own genocide, we experienced so much suffering. I grew up watching my mother hope to find just a bone of our family members. We actually celebrated when bones of our relatives were identified and found. Now I realize how insane that was—at the time I was celebrating, thinking finally we have a grave for them. But now I understand how deeply wrong it is that this should be something completely normal. Every person should have a proper grave for their loved ones. Yet because of genocide and the crimes being committed, even the dead bodies are being taken away—which is what is happening right now in Gaza.