Worldwide Support For Fair Lawn Teen After Anti-Israel Tweets

A Fair Lawn teenager has received worldwide attention and support for anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian comments she posted on Twitter last month.

Bethany Koval, 16, a student at Fair Lawn High School, says she was reprimanded by school officials for a tweet about Israel that caused a fellow classmate to unfollow her.

According to Koval, the assistant principal coerced her into writing a statement describing the events, despite her objection that she didn’t want to write it without a lawyer present, The Gothamist reported.

Related: Fair Lawn Student: ‘I Was Reprimanded Over Anti-Israel Tweets’

Administrators, including Principal James Marcella, reportedly searched Koval’s phone because they thought she might be recording the meeting and told her she could be sued by the Department of Education for doing so.

Her story has received widespread attention.

The hacker group Anonymous posted a video on YouTube in support of Koval, who goes by the username ”benny” on Twitter.

In the video, the group said Koval was simply “exercising her constitutionally-protected right to free speech.”

Since the situation went public, Koval made her Twitter account private.

Users from all over the world and the United States, including Ireland, England, and Missouri, tweeted in support of Koval, some of them with the hashtag #FreePalestine. The hashtag #IStandWithBenny was trending on Twitter Thursday and Friday.

Koval has been called by some as a “brave young activist.”

“This is an attack on Free Speech,” Twttier user Charles Laramie said. “You may not like what this person tweeted but they have a right to voice it w/o fear!”

“Everybody read this thread, this incredible young person is speaking for the oppressed,” said Twitter user I am Debbie Harry.

Some have taken to Twitter to express that Palestinians’ oppression is because Israel is an apartheid state.

(Pictured: Bethany Koval’s Twitter profile picture)