Multiple members of Facebook’s parent Meta’s Supervisory Board have displayed a clear anti-Israel bias since the war with Hamas began last October 7 — with one even referring to Israel as a “terrorist government” and “the most criminal in history”.
At least four members of the 21-person advisory group – which sparked outrage on Wednesday by determining the anti-Israel phrase “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” does not constitute hate speech – have published views critical of Jews. the state.
One of the most vocal has been Tawakkol Karman, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who has referred to the civilian deaths in Gaza as “ethnic cleansing” and a “war of extermination.”
In a June 7 post on X, Karman celebrated the United Nations’ move to place Israel’s military on a global list of entities that have committed harm against children — known as the “list of shame.” Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad were also added.
“The United Nations puts Israel, its terrorist government and its most criminal military in history on the list of shame. I welcome this decision, which was long overdue,” Karman wrote, according to a Google translation.
Earlier in the year, Karman accused Israel of committing “genocide” during a controversial speech at the Vatican on March 11. She praised the pro-Palestinian protests that appeared on American college campuses while accusing the world of “silence.”
“Students in America, a big salute to all those students who are not only fighting against the genocide in Gaza,” Karman said. “They are fighting and sacrificing to put America on the right side of history.”
Israel denounced her speech as “flamboyantly anti-Semitic”.
Nighat Dad, a member of the Supervisory Board and director of the Pakistan-based Digital Rights Foundation, has also been publicly critical of Israel since the surprise cross-border attack by Hamas killed 1,200 in Israel.
In an X post last October 16, three days after Israeli forces began their ground occupation of Gaza, the father referred to the enclave as the “open prison of the world”.
She expressed solidarity with pro-Palestinian protesters in New York and London in other posts and captioned a video with the hashtag “Gaza under attack.”
In a January 7 post on X, the father condemned the death of a Palestinian named “Hamza” who had been “martyred by an Israeli attack.”
“How many more martyrs does the world need to see to stop this massacre of Muslims in Gaza?” The father wrote.
In March, the father posted the viral meme “All Eyes on Rafah” that used an AI-generated image.
Representatives of Meta and the independent Oversight Council did not return The Post’s requests for comment.
As The Post previously reported, Board of Supervisors member Alan Rusbridger, former editor-in-chief of the left-wing U.K. newspaper The Guardian, wrote a column earlier this year arguing that while there is “real, vile anti-Semitism” , “the horrors of October 7th certainly did not occur in a vacuum.”
Endy Bayuni, a member of the Supervisory Board and senior editor at the Jakarta Post, published a column last April arguing that Indonesia “should be seen as advocating an independent Palestinian state and full membership in the United Nations.”
Only one member of the Supervisory Board is Israeli.
A “majority” of users screened by the panel can use the phrase – which refers to the idea of a Palestinian state spanning all the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, land currently controlled by Israel – as long as it is not used. in a way that glorifies Hamas or calls for violence.
The Supervisory Board has not published a breakdown of the voting results or detailed which of its members participated.
Instead, the board said its decisions “are made by five-member panels and are approved by a majority vote of the full Board” and noted that decisions “do not necessarily represent the views of all members.”
The majority of voting members determined that the slogan “has many meanings and is used by people in different ways and with different purposes.”
Meanwhile, Meta’s approach to moderating posts containing the controversial slogan remains murky at best.
In one example identified by The Post, a Facebook account titled “Palestine Liberation Group” shared a GIF in which a red arrow slowly erases the Star of David before turning into a Palestinian flag along with the phrase, “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”
Some Jewish advocacy groups questioned whether the Meta Supervisory Board could make an unbiased decision on the “from the river to the sea” slogan, given its members’ previous remarks.
“The fact that multiple members of the Meta Supervisory Board have made statements to delegitimize the terror of October 7 and unfairly criticize Israel shows that there was clear bias in their decision to decide that ‘from the river to the sea’ does not constitute hate speech. “, Sacha Roytman, CEO of the Anti-Semitism Movement, told The Post.
“Rather than appreciate the context and history of the phrase as a direct call to violence, the board chose to hold Israel to an unfair double standard that will only lead to further anti-Semitism online,” he added.
A spokesman for the Anti-Defamation League said: “We are concerned about claims of anti-Israel bias by some members of the oversight board who may have been involved in the recent outrageous decision regarding the phrase ‘from the river to the sea.’ . We will investigate this further.”
The World Jewish Congress said the Oversight Board “has shown itself to be a one-sided body that ultimately fails to protect vulnerable communities from hate speech.”
“The Supervisory Board lacks transparency and accountability,” the organization said in a statement. “The World Jewish Congress will continue to work closely with Meta to ensure that hate speech and calls for violence are removed from the platform.”
#Members #Meta #Oversight #Board #Slam #Israel #Gaza #Criminal #Army #History
Image Source : nypost.com