activisms_50-61r1.qxp_May 2021 Activisms 3/30/21 10:36 AM Page 51
On Feb. 24, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) delivered a petition signed by more than 54,000 people to Facebook, opposing the social media giant’s apparent consideration of including the term “Zionist” in its hate speech policy. Lobbied by Israeli-American real estate millionaire Adam Milstein and other proIsrael extremists, Facebook is considering whether the term “Zionist” is being used as a proxy for attacking Israelis or Jews and could therefore be considered hate speech under Facebook’s Community Standards policy. “The proposed policy would too easily mischaracterize conversations about Zionists—and by extension, Zionism—as inherently anti-Semitic, harming Facebook users and undermining efforts to dismantle real anti-Semitism and all forms of racism, extremism and oppression,” declared the open letter petition from JVP. Signed by leading human rights activists, academics and artists and cosponsored by 55 organizations, the petitions were delivered virtually as well as in person to 17 Facebook offices from San Francisco to Johannesburg. Prominent Jewish and Palestinian activists promoted the open-letter petition. “As Palestinians, we cannot underestimate the impact of social media in enabling us to be seen and to actually tell our story,” explained Noura Erakat, a legal scholar and human rights attorney. “When I tried to share the story of how my cousin was killed by Israeli soldiers, Facebook took it down. This is why we have to fight.” Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), the U.S. branch of a Christian theological organization headquartered in Jerusalem, endorsed the petition drive and held a webinar in support of it on Feb. 22 that featured Rabbi Alissa Wise, deputy director of JVP. Wise declared that the proposed Facebook policy “to adopt ‘Zionist’ as a proxy for Jew or Israeli” would undermine freedom of speech and moreover have “real world implications for Palestinians, for Israelis, for Jewish people and MAY 2021
PHOTO COURTESY JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE
JVP Petitions Facebook Over Proposed Policy on “Zionism”
Activists delivering the JVP petition to Facebook’s offices in Tel Aviv, Israel.
Palestinian people all over the world.” If the Facebook policy were to be implemented, “important attempts to hold Israel accountable through constitutionally protected political speech could be labeled as hate speech and removed from the platform,” Wise explained. “To conflate Zionism with all Jews is a very harmful assumption...because it’s premised on the anti-Semitic notion that Jews are uniform in our beliefs” and “fundamentally loyal to a foreign government,” and thus “don’t truly belong in our home countries and communities.” FOSNA’s Jonathan Brenneman explained that the proposed Facebook policy would impede anti-Zionist Christian groups like FOSNA from shedding light on the oppression of Palestinians being enabled by other Christians. Brenneman declared there are “more Christian Zionists than Jewish Zionists, and they hold not only antiSemitic ideas but also extremely anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim beliefs as well.” Also appearing on the FOSNA webinar, Palestinian law student Carmel Abuzaid noted, “We’ve had several posts taken down” on Facebook, including a photograph of a Palestinian child with a slingshot, even as other posts showing the Israel Defense Forces with tanks and automatic weapons went unimpeded by Facebook’s Community Standards policy. “Tactics to silence us,” she added, “are a reflection of how our work is effective and how we have to continue to push our narrative and not back down.” Palestinian journalist Nour Odeh noted that the “targeting of Palestinian voices, Palestinian narratives” by Facebook mirrors
the actual daily oppression on the ground in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “There is a lot of intimidation out there,” she explained, noting that Palestinians are stopped and questioned and prevented from observing and filming events on a regular basis. “The root of this trend is racism. Palestinians are not allowed to be seen as humans of equal worth, as people who have rights that are being suppressed.” Facebook made no comment on the JVP petition or the likelihood of revising its Community Standards policy. —Walter L. Hixson
WAGING PEACE Passionate Debate Offers Three Avenues for U.S. Role in Syria
On Feb. 26, the SETA Foundation’s Washington, DC office hosted a candid online discussion on U.S. policy in Syria. Panelists offered a wide-range of views as to how President Joe Biden ought to handle the Syrian conflict. “I think there will be more continuity with the Trump administration than there will be change,” said Robert Ford, former U.S. ambassador to Syria, now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. President Biden is unlikely to reduce or withdraw American military forces in Syria, he said, because the administration believes keeping troops there provides “leverage” against the government in Damascus, and a withdrawal would hurt U.S. credibility with partners in the region. Ford also doubts the Biden administra-
WASHINGTON REPORT ON MIDDLE EAST AFFAIRS
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