Emory University Places Medical Professor on Leave for Anti-Semitic Statements

Emory University is a prestigious school with two beautiful campuses in metro Atlanta. It has a reputation for high academic standards and a hefty price tag, and its medical program is one of the best in the Southeast. Emory is also a bastion of far-left radicalism, which makes its recent move somewhat surprising.

Dr. Abeer N. AbouYabis is an assistant professor of hematology and medical oncology as well as a physician at Emory’s innovative Winship Cancer Institute, but the university has placed her on leave following anti-Semitic comments she made on a personal social media account.

UPDATE: Dr. Abeer N. AbouYabis has now been put on leave while Emory Winship Cancer Institute looks into the situation. https://t.co/NB7Jat7bFb

— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) October 17, 2023

Emory University released a statement on Tuesday, which read, “We condemn such comments in the strongest possible terms and have immediately placed this individual on administrative leave pending an internal investigation.”

“As we navigate difficult conversations, our expectation is that all members of the Emory community continue to demonstrate empathy and treat each other with dignity and respect,” the statement continued. “There is no place in our community for language and behavior based in hatred, that incites violence, and that is counter to the values that unite us as educators and health practitioners.”

Emory’s Woodruff Health Sciences Center issued a statement of its own, which read, “We expect all members of the Emory community to treat each other with dignity and respect at all times, recognizing that each of us comes from different backgrounds and holds different beliefs.”

Here’s a screenshot of AbouYabis’ post on what looks like Facebook:

For her part, the doctor claims that she has never advocated violence; instead, she claims to have been working to promote healing and speaking out for peace.

“AbouYabis, who is Palestinian-American, said she has a track record of trying to build bridges and served previously in a leadership role with an Atlanta group that brings together Muslim and Jewish women and in another interfaith women’s alliance,” reports WSB Radio. “She said she also was, until Tuesday morning, the co-vice chair of diversity, equity, and inclusion in her department at the medical school and had been planning a ‘healing circle’ event at work to give people a chance to talk about the war.”

WSB also reports that AbouYabis’ bio on the Winship website was active until Tuesday when Emory replaced it with a message that the page has been moved or deleted.

Meanwhile, in another part of Atlanta, authorities at Georgia Tech are investigating after someone used shaving cream to write a “pro-Palestinian” message on the wall of a Jewish fraternity over the weekend. A statement from Alpha Epsilon Pi said that the fraternity’s members “are profoundly disheartened to see that this conflict has allowed antisemitism to gain a foothold on our campus.”

“Every member of this community has the right to speak freely, but respectful interaction and discourse are the expectations of how our community behaves and are the standards to which we must hold ourselves and each other, without fail,” wrote Georgia Tech President Ángel Cabrera in a message to students and faculty. Cabrera added that the First Amendment “does not allow for vandalism or physical assault.”

At a time when we’re seeing anti-Semitism rear its ugly head on campuses across the country, good on schools like Emory and Georgia Tech for investigating and hopefully rooting some of it out. Schools like these are doing the right thing.