Facebook has been in our NZ media news recently. But there is another issue human rights activists have with Facebook. That is, Facebook’s cooperation with Israel’s suppression of Palestinians’ right to communicate.
Glenn Greenwald has reported that in 2016, Israeli officials said to Facebook
“We are going to enact a law that requires you to delete the accounts of the—whatever accounts our government identifies as guilty of incitement… companies that don’t comply with its censorship orders…the only way that you can avoid this law is if you voluntarily obey the orders that we give you about who should be deleted.”
Greenwald added, “And Facebook, whether because they were driven by business interests of not wanting to lose the Israeli market, or ideology, that they support the Israeli viewpoint of the world, which ever one of those motives might be driving them, or whatever mixture of motives, complied with the Israeli demands. “
In September 2016, Facebook representatives met with the Israeli government to be told which Facebook accounts of Palestinians should be deleted on the ground that they constituted ‘incitement’. Israeli intelligence has developed a predictive policing system, a computer algorithm, that analyzes social media posts to identify Palestinian ‘suspects’. They claim they can predict who is likely, some time in the future to commit ‘terrorism’.
The Israelis say that social media leads to incitement, pointing to the number of ‘likes’ as evidence. For Palestinians, using social media to share what they witness is their only way of communicating .
The meetings were called for and presided over by Israel’s Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. Shaked herself , via Facebook in 2015, called for the genocide of Palestinians , declaring that “the entire Palestinian people is the enemy”, and calling for the destruction of anything connected with Palestinians “including its elderly and its women, its cities and its villages, its property and its infrastructure.”
She called for the slaughter of Palestinian mothers who give birth to “little snakes.” Her post was shared more than one thousand times and received almost five thousand ‘Likes’.
The next day Palestinian teenager Muhammad Abu Khudair was kidnapped and burned alive allegedly by six Israeli Jewish youths.
But never mind. Israeli Jews are free to say what they like on Facebook. Israelis have virtually free rein to post whatever they want about Palestinians. Calls by Israelis for the killing of Palestinians are commonplace on Facebook, and largely remain undisturbed. Palestinian politicians. Ahmad Tibi and Haneen Zoabi, both Palestinian members of the Knesset, are regularly subjected to violent threats on Facebook.
The meeting with Facebook and the Justice Minister was about silencing Palestinians, including Palestinian journalists, from reporting what they witness, and/or for complaining about any aspect of the ongoing occupation.
Facebook, obediently following orders from the Israelis, has been on a ‘censorship rampage’ against Palestinians.
Facebook has suspended the personal profiles and organizational pages of Palestinians, while Israeli occupation forces have detained hundreds of Palestinians for their posts on social media.
The most well known cases are of the poet Dareen Tatour , under house arrest, still, after posting a poem Facebook in 2015, and the astrophyicist professor Imad Barghouti. Dareen Latour’s case has been taken up by writers around the world. The arrest of Professor Barghouti, who has worked with Nasa, sparked outrage among many British academics.
The Palestinian Authority, PA, is also cracking down on dissent. Under their new ‘Electronic Crimes Law’, the PA detained Youth Against Settlements leader Issa Amro of Hebron in September 2017, for criticising the PA on Facebook. Issa Amro is highly respected by international rights activists. The settlers in Hebron, fanatic fundamentalists from New York, are notorious for their violence.
The most recent news is of the raid on Birzeit University by Israeli police (or IDF?). Mascarading as journalists, they arrested students they identified as possible future ‘enemies’. Among those arrested was 22-year old Istbraq Tamimi, secretary of the university’s student council. She is studying radio and television journalism in the media faculty at the University. Are the Israelis assuming that she is capable of saying something or reporting something one day that does not meet approval?
She is one of about 60 Birzeit students held in Israeli detention.
There is so much more that could be said. Glenn Greenwald is very concerned about social media censorship. He writes about the Chinese and US Governments’, as well as the Israel Government’s, dealings with Facebook.
Samidoun and electronicintifada are two sources about information re Palestinian prisoners.
The main point to be made is that Facebook is not a feel-good charity; it’s a profit-driven corporation. It has power that we the public need to try to comprehend.
Lois Griffiths is a human rights activist
Facebook and Messenger have both blocked this post. On Fb I was told I had malware (untrue). On Messenger I was told it contained offensive content. Have I been identified as a BDS activist and is this pro-Israeli censorship?
Yesterday Waikato University hosted a public lecture: Evidence-Based Policy for Building Peace in Protracted Conflicts: A Case Study of Israel-Palestine. The presentation was by Paul Duffill, Assistant Professor, Department of Global Innovation Studies, Toyo University. He is also Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Sydney
http://www.toyo.ac.jp/site/dgis/as13.html;
http://sydney.edu.au/arts/peace_conflict/people/paul_duffill.shtml.
I have attached the overheads from the lecture which are a useful lens through which to view the conflict. In short, Paul came with a strong message of support for the BDS movement from a platform of evidence based policy. He has offered to talk to any Greens who would like to engage on the Israel/Palestine situation.
Paul came with specific recommendations for N.Z. He emphasised the need for nations like ours to change our behaviour which is helping to sustain the conflict. Paul pointed out the Western double standard increases the power imbalance of Israel over the Palestinians and therefore blocks peace efforts.
Examples of our double standards:
Refusal to place sanctions on Israeli groups and Israeli military involved in violence while
using sanctions against wide variety of other Middle Eastern groups and countries. (see for example http://www.police.govt.nz/advice/personal-
community/counterterrorism/designated-entities)
• According to NZ Peace Action Wellington, New Zealand taxpayer funding through grants and contacts etc. has been provided to weapons and aerospace companies such as Cubic Corporation and Textron Aviation.
Cubic Corporation and Textron Aviation equip and/or train the Israeli military. Cubic Defence NZ is a wholly owned subsidiary of US-based Cubic Defence, a corporation specialising in military communications systems and training that hold contracts with the Israeli Defence force and the US military. (https://peaceactionwellington.files.wordpress.com/2015/11/profiting-
from-war-for-webprint.pdf).
Most importantly NZ needs the ability (through legislation) to pass our own autonomous sanctions. We need to stop funding and engagement with corporations and groups which profit from the conflict between Israel and Palestine.
Feel free to contact Paul.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18FdOly_4vNSaB-5IW70JBPIZ7ZN6anu7/view
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