STAFF PHOTO D. HANLEY
activisms_46-56.qxp_August/Sept 2022 Activisms 7/7/22 7:54 PM Page 54
USS Liberty survivors honor their shipmates buried at Arlington National Cemetery and those others buried around the country, on June 8, 2022.
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vital for Americans to hear. He and the Liberty survivors demand an honest, unbiased and open-to-the-public investigation by the Defense Department or Congress. They vow to raise bloody hell again and again to urge their country to remember Israel’s attack on the USS Liberty. —Delinda C. Hanley
ARAB AMERICAN ACTIVISM Social Media Censorship of Palestinians The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) convention on June 18 started with a panel entitled, “Free Speech
PHOTO COURTESY ADC
of those children and grandchildren gathered at the cemetery. The crew wants to know why President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered the Sixth Fleet aircraft racing to their aid to return to their carrier, abandoning the USS Liberty to an additional torpedo attack and saying he didn’t want to embarrass an ally. “That order cost the lives of 25 of our shipmates,” survivor Joe Meadors, U.S. Navy signalman, said. “To this day, the order to abandon us is still being obeyed with a devastating effect on USS Liberty survivors.” Wayne Stiles was a co-pilot on the first rescue helicopter to reach the USS Liberty the following morning, June 9. (His short interview at the ceremony with the Washington Report, posted on TikTok, was viewed over 12,000 times before this article went to press!) Stiles said there was no place to land on the destroyed ship so his helicopter hovered and brought the wounded up on a hoist cable in order to evacuate them to the USS America. Stiles said he saw blood sloshing back and forth in the forward gun tub, where the Israelis had machinegunned the men who had tried to defend their lightly-armed ship. Stiles admitted it was a shocking day for a little farm boy from Western Connecticut. Former Congressman Pete McCloskey (R-CA), who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1983, was honored at that evening’s dinner. McCloskey has always believed this story is
for Some, Not All: Silencing Voices Through ‘Content Moderation.’” Panelists included Matthew Feeney, director of the CATO Institute’s Project on Emerging Technologies; Omar Baddar, an independent analyst; and Aisha Jitan, digital communications associate for the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights. Moderator Abed Ayoub, ADC’s legal director, began by utilizing former President Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter as an example of how social media companies apply content moderation standards, and turned to Feeney for insight into what this move revealed about Twitter’s policies. “My own personal view is that Twitter was in a really tough spot,” Feeney said. “It’s quite something for a private social media company to say to the president of your country, you shouldn’t be allowed.” While the panelists agreed they don’t miss Trump’s online presence, Baddar noted it is an example of selective censorship. Most disturbing to Baddar is how antiPalestinian censorship often occurs at the request of the Israeli government. This also extends to Americans advocating for Palestinian rights, especially given the prevalence of anti-BDS laws and the expansion of anti-Semitism’s definition to include criticism of the State of Israel. While Baddar values content moderation, he advocates for a clear approach that safe-
Omar Baddar discusses efforts to suppress free speech when it comes to criticizing Israel.
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2022
