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, documenting her anti-Zionist activity.

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. The Canary Mission’s profile of Johnson is currently the second result that comes up when searching her name on Google.

In 2015, as a student at Northwestern, Johnson joined the group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and supported a boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign. The BDS movement seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward the Jewish state’s eventual elimination. Johnson later served as SJP’s events coordinator.

In 2021, during Israel’s military operation against terrorists in Gaza, Johnson said on a podcast episode that US support for Israel is due to “the really powerful Zionist lobby that advocates for policies, statements, voting patterns that benefit the State of Israel.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.