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“I cannot recall ever seeing individual people engaging in free speech, joining the political dialogue in this nation, getting targeted in the way that I’ve seen this time around.”

by Eddie Velasquez, Prism

When Tania Singh was placed on paid administrative leave at her job with the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) in mid-October, she was shocked. The former union organizer had just successfully helped organize a campaign to unionize sexual assault nurse examiners and felt she was making a difference for workers.

“I was feeling really good about the work I had done,” she said. “I [won over] some anti-union people to vote to form a union by explaining to them what it is, what solidarity means, and all of that. I was feeling really good about myself and very confident.”

protestors for palestine and for israel square off

Singh said MNA officials opened an investigation on her Facebook account about a week after she was placed on leave. By then, she had already heard some whispers that the union was looking into her social media statements in support of Palestine, following the Oct. 7 attacks by the military wing of the political group Hamas on Israel and the subsequent occupation State of Israel’s attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank in response. She had taken to social media to post pro-Palestine statements about how Hamas’ actions were fueled by Israeli settler-colonial violence.

“I think the words I used really hit people because I specifically said I support Hamas because I support the oppressed’s right to resist in any way they deem fit,” Singh said about Palestinians. “It will be a cold day in hell when the oppressor is actually dictating the terms of how you’re going to resist.”

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