Meta's monitoring committee faced heavy criticism for determining that the “from the river to the sea” rhetoric against Israel did not constitute hate speech, but several of its members have expressed critical views of Israel's actions in Gaza.
The advisory board, which claims to be independent of Meta, decided that Facebook and Instagram users can use the controversial slogan, which has appeared at anti-Israel protests across the country, as long as it is not used in a way that glorifies Hamas or calls for violence.
The Oversight Board, established in 2020 with the approval of Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg, currently consists of 21 members who, according to their website, “come from diverse cultural and professional backgrounds, speak more than 30 languages, and were selected to reflect the diverse users of Facebook, Instagram and Threads.”
But past comments by several members have raised doubts about whether they can remain impartial on the slogan, which refers to the idea of a Palestinian state stretching across land currently controlled by Israel between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
Its members include Yemeni activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Tawakkol Karman, who declared in a Vatican speech last May that “the world is silent in the face of the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people of Gaza.” Israel has condemned her actions. The remarks were condemned as “blatantly anti-Semitic.”
Alan Rusbridger, former editor-in-chief of the left-leaning British media outlet The Guardian, wrote: In a column earlier this year, He said that while “real and vile anti-Semitism” does exist, “the horror of October 7 certainly did not take place in a vacuum.” He also weighed in on the debate over “From the River to the Sea.”
“Some have considered this slogan worthy of prosecution, but Prime Minister Netanyahu recently declared that Israel must exercise security control over all of the territory west of the Jordan River, erasing the idea of a Palestinian state. Can we say one but not the other?” Rusbridger writes.
Nigat Dad, director of the Pakistan-based Digital Rights Foundation, said: He slammed Facebook in a 2018 column. “The allegation that we have caved in to Israel by silencing the voices of historically victimized people who called on what should be called an occupying power is a testament to the influence some governments have over Silicon Valley tech giants.”
“The government is very strict and strict,” said Endy Bayuni, a member of the monitoring committee and senior editor at The Jakarta Post. Last April in Indonesia “They should stand up for an independent Palestinian state and full membership in the United Nations.”
The Oversight Committee has not disclosed which members took part in the vote or how many voted for or against the measure. The Washington Post has reached out to the committee for comment.
Other prominent members of the council include former Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, former UN spokesman Khaled Monsour and Mexico City-based human rights lawyer Pamela San Martin.
The committee acknowledged that a minority of its members dissented from the decision, noting that the phrase “from the river to the sea” also appears in the charter of the Hamas terrorist organization.
“The Committee minority determined that Meta should adopt the default rule, assuming that a phrase constitutes glorification of a designated organization, unless there is a clear indication from the user that they do not support Hamas or the October 7 attacks,” the committee said in a statement about the ruling.
Meanwhile, the majority of committee voters felt the phrase “has multiple meanings and is used in different ways and with different intentions by different people.”
“Context is crucial,” said San Martín, who co-chairs the committee. “Simply removing political speech is not the solution. There needs to be room for discussion, especially in times of crisis and conflict.”
The group said its decisions are “made by a committee of five members and approved by a majority vote of the entire board,” noting that its decisions “do not necessarily represent the views of the entire membership.”
Of the 21 members listed on the Oversight Committee's website, only one is Israeli.
Emi Palmour is a Jerusalem-born lawyer and former head of the Israeli Ministry of Justice, who was part of the team that negotiated with Hamas for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit after his infamous kidnapping in 2006. Her parents survived the Holocaust as children.
March 2021 Interview with Jewish InsiderPalmore said one of his reasons for joining the oversight committee was to “provide a Jewish perspective on issues of anti-Semitism and genocide.”
The watchdog group Campaign to Combat Anti-Semitism said the watchdog's decision was “unreasonable” and would encourage the spread of anti-Semitism online.
“'From the River to the Sea' is a slogan crafted with the sole vision of destroying the national homeland of the Jewish people,” CAM CEO Sasha Roitman said in a statement. “Its intent and meaning are genocidal and it targets the one and only Jewish state and its inhabitants for destruction, making it an inexcusable political and ideological vision.”
CAM submitted a white paper to Meta's oversight board in May outlining its position on why the slogan should be banned.
“The warped logic and twisting of words used by some on the Meta Oversight Committee to defend anti-Semites shows conscious bias,” Roitman added. “We explained to them the history and context of the phrase, and how it was invented and used exclusively as a call for genocide by people who have openly and proudly called for the murder of Jews everywhere.”
“No matter how complicated the circumstances or how twisted the logic, there is no way to justify this outrage.”
The World Jewish Congress said it was “deeply disappointed” by the decision.
“The phrase 'from the river to the sea', which is part of the terrorist organization Hamas' charter, is a clarion call for violence against Israelis and the entire Jewish world,” the WJC said. “Jews around the world have an absolute right to live freely as Jews, and Mehta's decision does nothing to quell overt anti-Semitism. Words matter, especially in the aftermath of October 7.”
