September, 24 2020, 12:00am EDT
Thousands Call on Facebook to Stop Censoring Palestine
#FacebookCensorsPalestine reaches over 6 million people on same day that Zoom, Facebook and YouTube jointly repressed academic panel featuring Palestinians
WASHINGTON
With tweets, Facebook posts, Instagram stories, videos and live protest, thousands of people from Ramallah to San Francisco called on Facebook to stop unfairly censoring Palestinian voices and those in support of Palestinian rights. Over 23,000 people signed the petition Tell Facebook: Part ways with Emi Palmor and stop censoring Palestinians.
The coalition demanding Facebook, Stop Censoring Palestine saw the hashtags #DropEmiPalmor and #FacebookCensorsPalestine trending on Twitter, with a combined reach of over 12 million. The video Censoring Palestinians on Facebook, detailing Facebook's systemic silencing of Palestinian voices and their supporters was viewed by thousands. And an in-person protest outside of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's house demanded that Facebook's Oversight Board - due to start implementing Community Standards on Facebook and Instagram October 1st - no longer includes Emi Palmor. Emi Palmor is a former head of the Israeli Ministry of Justice who personally managed Israel's Cyber Unit that resulted in the removal of thousands of pieces of Palestinian content from Facebook. During her five-year tenure, the Cyber Unit's unlawful work "imposed severe limitations on freedom of expression and opinion, especially about Palestine."
As the global campaign Facebook, Stop Censoring Palestine was launching its digital Day of Action, Zoom, YouTube and Facebook banned SFSU's open classroom event "Whose Narratives? Gender, Justice and Resistance" featuring Palestinian academic Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi and Palestinian resistance icon Leila Khaled. Jewish Voice for Peace chapters across the country planning to livestream the event were informed that Facebook had removed the event from their pages, and that these chapter pages were now at risk of being blocked from Facebook. Ellen Brotsky, a member of JVP Bay Area chapter said: " We co-sponsored this webinar because we believe that Palestinian voices must be lifted up and heard by people in the United States, even when those voices are critical of Israel and Zionism and may cause discomfort to some. We are even more outraged that all three media platforms - Facebook, Zoom and YouTube - caved to anti-Palestinian pressure and pulled the plug on the webinar."
The censored event was held by San Francisco State University's Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diaspora Studies program, and featured professors Rabab Abdelhadi and Tomomi Kinuwaka in conversation with academics and former political prisoners Leila Khaled, Rula Abu Dahu, Ronnie Kasrils, Sekou Odinga and Laura Whitehorn, who is also a JVP member. The JVP-Bay Area chapter was a co-sponsor of the event.
Granate Kim, Communications Director at Jewish Voice for Peace: "The appointment of Emi Palmor to Facebook's vaunted Oversight Board is just the latest example of Facebook's close ties to the Israeli government. It's well-documented that Facebook regularly agrees to requests from the Israeli government to remove posts that criticize Israel for its illegal occupation of Palestinian land. Words as simple as "resist" and "martyr" are flagged for Facebook to monitor and delete. When confronted, Facebook often back pedals. But this is not enough. Instead of fighting post-by-post and for the reinstatement of individual accounts, we demand that Facebook remove Emi Palmor."
Alison Carmel, International Relations Manager at 7amleh: "The Facebook Oversight Board should not be trusted as it is not designed to safeguard against government interference and conflicts of interest, as Facebook would like us to believe. As we can see from their bi-laws, the Oversight Board only requires members to disclose their ties to the government and foreign agents. That is why we have Emi Palmor -- someone with a long history of working on behalf of the Israeli government to censor Palestinians -- becoming a member. The Facebook Oversight Board is a power game, a way for Facebook to try and escape true international regulation and accountability, and we should not be distracted by their public relations efforts and keep shedding light on how companies are supporting their efforts."
Olivia Katbi Smith, North America coordinator for the BDS Movement: "Facebook must stop censoring advocates of Palestinian rights, including BDS advocacy. Facebook has a duty to respect the right to boycott, including boycotts aimed at ending complicity in Israel's apartheid regime over the Palestinian people, as the right to boycott falls under protected freedom of speech. The European Court of Human Rights has confirmed that calls for a boycott of Israeli products fall under the right to freedom of expression as protected by the European Convention on Human Rights. We urge Facebook to respect human rights and end their silencing of Palestinian voices, and to remove Emi Palmor from the Oversight Board."
Ines Abdel Razek, Advocacy Director at the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy: "Facebook is a window to the world for many oppressed communities - like Palestinians, Kashmiris, Rohingyas or Uighurs - to speak out for freedom, justice and dignity. Unfortunately, Facebook has a track record of silencing advocates and giving in to autocratic and repressive regimes' narratives and bullying. In Palestine, it is doing genuine harm to a people living under an apartheid regime. Facebook should do better in ensuring its algorithms, content policies and Oversight Board are not contributing to further bigotry, censorship and violations of human rights."
The campaign is organized by 7amleh, Jewish Voice for Peace, the BDS Movement for Palestinian rights, the Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Supporting organizations: Adalah Justice Project; Association Belgo-Palestinienne; AFPS - Association France Palestine Solidarite; AROC - Arab Resource & Organizing Center; BDS Switzerland; Canadian BDS Coalition; CODEPINK; Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign; Just Peace Advocates; MPower Change; Palestinian Youth Movement; Palastina Spricht; U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights; U.S. Palestinian Community Network
BACKGROUND
Freedom of expression and human rights advocates have already raised concerns that social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram all too regularly allow white nationalists hate speech to flourish, while posts and pages defending the rights of oppressed communities - from Palestine to Kashmir to Myanmar - are continually censored. Even the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza was removed from Facebook - three times! - including during the coronavirus pandemic.
Palestinian rights groups and journalists confirmed a number of years aog that the Israeli government and a network of Israeli government-funded NGOs were systematically working to get Facebook to hide Israel's human rights violations by censoring Palestinians and supporters of Palestinian rights on their platform. During Emi Palmor's tenure, Facebook complied with 95% of the Israeli government's requests to censor Palestinians.
And a new report, Facebook Censors Palestine, determined that posts about the experiences of Palestinian people and the Israeli occupation are more actively reviewed and censored by Facebook than most content, while hate speech posts like "Death to Palestine" or "Every Muslim is a dead terrorist" were not taken down or flagged by Facebook for violating Community Standards.
Recently, Facebook announced they were convening an Oversight Board to enforce Community Standards against hate speech on Facebook and Instagram, due to start operation October 1st. But Emi Palmor was chosen to join the Oversight Board.
Can Facebook's Oversight Board really be "independent" when Emi Palmor - responsible for the removal of countless posts of Palestinians on the platform - is part of it?
Jewish Voice for Peace is a national, grassroots organization inspired by Jewish tradition to work for a just and lasting peace according to principles of human rights, equality, and international law for all the people of Israel and Palestine. JVP has over 200,000 online supporters, over 70 chapters, a youth wing, a Rabbinic Council, an Artist Council, an Academic Advisory Council, and an Advisory Board made up of leading U.S. intellectuals and artists.
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ICC Slams New US Sanctions on Judges as 'Flagrant Attack' on Rule of Law
"When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk," the court said.
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"Today, I am designating two International Criminal Court (ICC) judges, Gocha Lordkipanidze of Georgia and Erdenebalsuren Damdin of Mongolia, pursuant to Executive Order 14203, 'Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court,'" US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement, referring to President Donald Trump's February edict.
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Although Israel and the US are not ICC members and do not recognize the Hague-based tribunal's jurisdiction, Palestine is a state party to the Rome Statute governing the court. The treaty says that individuals from nonsignatory nations can be held liable for crimes committed in the territory of a member state.
Last year, the ICC issued warrants for the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza, including murder and forced starvation in a war that has left more than 250,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing.
The Trump administration had previously sanctioned nine other ICC jurists: Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan (United Kingdom), Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan (Fiji), Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang (Senegal), Judge Solomy Balungi Bossa (Uganda), Judge Luz del Carmen Ibáñez Carranza (Peru), Judge Reine Adelaide Sophie Alapini-Gansou (Benin), Judge Beti Hohler (Slovenia), Judge Nicolas Yann Guillou (France), and Judge Kimberly Prost (Canada).
The affected judges have recently described how the US sanctions have left them and their families—who are also blacklisted—"wiped out economically and socially."
Responding to the new US punitive measures, the ICC said Thursday that "these sanctions are a flagrant attack against the independence of an impartial judicial institution which operates pursuant to the mandate conferred by its states parties from across regions."
"Such measures targeting judges and prosecutors who were elected by the states parties undermine the rule of law," the court continued. "When judicial actors are threatened for applying the law, it is the international legal order itself that is placed at risk."
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Human Rights Watch also slammed the new US sanctions, which the group called "the latest attempt by the Trump administration to blatantly interfere with independent justice."
The US government has imposed sanctions on two additional ICC judges in order to shield Israeli officials from charges of grave international crimes.These sanctions are the latest attempt by the Trump administration to blatantly interfere with independent justice.
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— Human Rights Watch (@hrw.org) December 18, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Amnesty International's Center for International Justice lamented that "once again, the US administration is attacking international justice—sanctioning two ICC judges. This cannot be normalized."
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As masked government agents—an oft-employed terror tool of authoritarian regimes—run roughshod amid the Trump administration's mass deportation effort, a leading human rights group on Thursday called on Congress to investigate abuses perpetrated by federal officers against immigrants and US citizens alike.
Federal immigration enforcement agents "now commonly operate masked and without visible identification, compounding the abusive and unaccountable nature of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign," Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. "The indefinite and widespread nature of these practices is fundamentally inconsistent with the United States’ obligations to ensure that law enforcement abuses are investigated and met with accountability."
HRW continued:
Since President Donald Trump’s return to office in January 2025, his administration has carried out an abusive campaign of immigration raids and arrests, primarily of people of color, across the country. Many of the raids target places where Latino people work, shop, eat, and live. The agents have seized people in courthouses and at regularly scheduled appointments with immigration officials, as well as in places of worship, schools, and other sensitive locations. Many raids have been marked by the sudden and unprovoked use of force without any justification, creating a climate of fear in many immigrant communities.
Drawing upon interviews with 18 people who were arrested or witnessed arrests by unidentified federal agents, HRW highlighted the "terror" and helplessness felt by victims of such "lawlessness."
“It was a horrible feeling,” said Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish PhD student at Tufts University who was illegally snatched off a Massachusetts street in March and whisked off to an US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lockup in Louisiana after she published an opinion piece in a student newspaper advocating divestment from apartheid Israel as it waged a genocidal war on Gaza. With Öztürk having committed no crime, a federal judge ordered her release 45 days later.
“I didn’t think that they were the police because I had never seen police approach and take someone away like this," Öztürk said of her arrest—which bystanders likened to a kidnapping. "I thought they were people who were doxing me, and I was genuinely very afraid for my safety... As a woman who’s traveled and lived alone in various countries for my studies, I’ve never experienced intense fear for my safety—until that moment.”
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While ICE tries to justify its widespread practice of masking agents “to prevent doxing,” HRW stressed that "this kind of generalized, blanket justification for concealing officers’ identity is not compatible with US human rights obligations, except when necessary and proportionate to address particular safety concerns."
"Anonymity also weakens deterrence, fosters conditions for impunity, and chills the exercise of rights," the group added.
It also sows terror, as Republican-appointed US District Judge William Young noted in a ruling earlier this year: "ICE goes masked for a single reason—to terrorize Americans into quiescence. Small wonder ICE often seems to need our respected military to guard them as they go about implementing our immigration laws. It should be noted that our troops do not ordinarily wear masks. Can you imagine a masked marine? It is a matter of honor—and honor still matters."
HRW also noted that "in recent months, media outlets have reported on people posing as federal agents kidnapping, sexually assaulting, and extorting victims, exploiting fears of immigration enforcement."
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Eleven Democrats on Thursday voted with nearly all Republicans in the US House of Representatives to advance a permitting reform bill that climate and frontline organizations warn is a "disastrous" attack on a landmark environmental protection law.
Democratic Reps. Jim Costa (Calif.), Henry Cuellar (Texas), Don Davis (NC), Chris Deluzio (Pa.), Lizzie Fletcher (Texas), Jared Golden (Maine), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Adam Gray (Calif.), John Mannion (NY), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.), and Marc Veasey (Texas) voted with all Republicans present expect Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) to pass the bill.
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Allie Rosenbluth, Oil Change International's US campaign manager, stressed that "our senators must stand up against the SPEED Act's attempts to undermine democratic decision-making, pollute our communities, and threaten our collective future."
For a Better Bayou's James Hiatt similarly said that "the SPEED Act protects corporate interests, not the public, and it should be rejected by any senator who claims to stand with the people."
Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright, co-coordinator of Black Alliance for Peace's Climate, Environment, and Militarism Initiative, warned that the bill "represents yet another assault on the health of frontline, Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor white communities that have been designated as sacrifice zones by big polluters who bribe lawmakers with big money to continue a culture of extract, slash, burn, and emit at the expense of oppressed and marginalized peoples."
"Rather than speeding up the approval of dirty projects, Congress should increase funding for federal agencies and grassroots organizations accountable to frontline communities to carry out legally defensible and accurate environmental analyses," he continued, pointing to the Environmental Justice for All Act, previously led by the late Democratic Congressmen Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.) and Donald McEachin (Va.).
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Representatives from the Institute for Policy Studies, Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples, and Unitarian Universalists for Social Justice also spoke out against what David Watkins, director of government affairs for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, condemned as "a sizable holiday gift basket for Big Oil and Gas." He, too, urged the Senate to "reject this retrograde legislation and stand up to the deep-pocketed, polluting industries lobbying for it."
Lauren Pagel, policy director at Earthworks, pointed out that passing the SPEED Act wasn't the only way in which the House on Thursday "chose corporate interests over people, Indigenous Peoples' rights, and our environment." It also passed the Mining Regulatory Clarity Act, which "will remove already-scarce protections for natural resources and sacred cultural sites in US mining law."
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