The dismissal of journal editor Michael Eisen, fired for sarcastic tweets on the Israel-Palestine conflict, will have a chilling effect on academics and researchers which would affect much needed reform as well as scientific integrity
On October 24, Michael Eisen was fired as the Editor-in-Chief of the prominent open access journal eLife. Taking to X (formerly Twitter) Professor Eisen said he was fired by the journal for “retweeting” on October 14 a satirical article published in The Onion that criticised dying Palestinians for not condemning the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas. His quote tweet said: “The Onion speaks with more courage, insight and moral clarity than the leaders of every academic institution put together. I wish there were a @TheOnion university”.
Soon after the October 14 tweet went viral, there was huge criticism and resignations from the journal. Following the backlash, he tweeted again the same day to clarify his position: “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 [an] 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.”
