Academic doxxed for supporting Israel
Professor Matthew Ogilvie warns anti-Israel doxxing campaigns will not stop with the Jewish community.
An anonymous website has published the personal details of a Catholic academic and Israel supporter, in a case showing that doxxing campaigns targeting the Jewish community are now reaching well beyond it.
Professor Matthew Ogilvie, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame Australia in Perth, found the listing while at a Friends of Israel event, when someone asked for a copy of one of his articles and he searched for it online.
“I was surprised at first and shocked, and then I felt the way that anyone would feel. I mean, the one word I’d use is violated,” he said.
The site claims Ogilvie believes in apartheid and genocide, calls him a fundamentalist, and accuses him of abusing his position to influence students.
He rejects all three, describing himself instead as “a very conservative Roman Catholic” and saying his Krav Maga and university students would know he is scrupulous about not manipulating anyone’s beliefs.
“These people are information terrorists because they take a kernel of truth, exaggerate it and tell awful lies,” he said.
The site links to his LinkedIn profile, where traffic has risen sharply. People at work and in the wider community have told him to “watch your back”, without explaining what they meant. He reported the site to the Australian Federal Police and the Community Security Group on the advice of a Western Australia Police officer.
Ogilvie said his experience is a warning to anyone who assumes such campaigns will stop at the Jewish community. The same site, he said, lists grievances against public figures whose offence was declining to actively support the Palestinian cause.
“It’s like any form of totalitarianism. They never stop with one group. They’ll keep going, and there’s no stop to it,” he said. “These people will go after anyone who is not on their side.”
He said the site omits that he has taught Palestinian students in his Krav Maga classes, and misrepresents his position on Palestinian statehood. He said he supports Palestinian self-determination, but does not believe it will come under Hamas or under Mahmoud Abbas.
“Being a friend of Israel does not mean being an enemy of the Palestinians,” he said.
He said Notre Dame, whose supervisors he informed immediately, has been supportive.