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Meta: Infamous cry calling for removal of Jews does not violate hate speech policy

September 4, 2024 | | Print Article

The Anti-Defamation League blasted Meta’s Oversight Board for its “pattern of supreme indifference to online hate and harassment” after a decision about an antisemitic phrase.

“ADL believes that the phrase ‘from the river to the sea’ is hate speech,” CEO Jonathan Greenblatt wrote to the social media platform’s oversight board after it ruled on Wednesday that using the phrase is not a violation of Meta’s hate speech rule.

“’From the river to the sea’ is used as shorthand for ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ which is an antisemitic slogan commonly featured in anti-Israel campaigns and chanted at demonstrations,” Greenblatt wrote. “This rallying cry, enshrined in the charter of Hamas, has long been used by anti-Israel voices, including supporters of terrorist organizations such as Hamas and the PFLP, which seek Israel’s destruction through violent means.”

Three different Facebook posts from November 2023 were reviewed by the Meta board which concluded they did not constitute hate speech since “they do not attack Jewish or Israeli people with calls for violence or exclusion, nor do they attack a concept or institution associated with a protected characteristic that could lead to imminent violence.”

Members of the board contended the phrase “has multiple meanings.”

“While it can be understood by some as encouraging and legitimizing antisemitism and the violent elimination of Israel and its people, it is also often used as a political call for solidarity, equal rights, and self-determination of the Palestinian people, and to end the war in Gaza,” the board said.

The board claimed there are a “variety of people using the phrase in different ways” and that the inclusion of the phrase in the 2017 revised charter of the terrorist Hamas organization “with explicit violent eliminationist intent and actions, does not make the phrase inherently hateful or violent.”

“Because the phrase does not have a single meaning, a blanket ban on content that includes the phrase, a default rule towards removal of such content, or even using it as a signal to trigger enforcement or review, would hinder protected political speech in unacceptable ways,” the board contended.

However, Greenblatt explained in the ADL letter that it is “an antisemitic charge denying the Jewish right to self-determination, including through the forced removal of Jews from their ancestral homeland.”

“Usage of this phrase has the effect of making members of the Jewish and pro-Israel community feel unsafe and ostracized. There are many ways to advocate for Palestinian justice and rights, including a Palestinian State, without resorting to using this hateful phrase, which denies the right of the State of Israel to exist,” he noted.

The letter cited recent polling to note that many college students do not understand the significance of the historical meaning behind the phrase which rang out on campuses amid protests following the Hamas attack on Israel nearly one year ago.

“ADL respectfully disagrees with Meta’s decision about this phrase. In the past 7+ months, ‘From the river to the sea’ has seeped into the mainstream and become associated with calls for Israel’s destruction,” Greenblatt noted. “And while the phrase might not always be directly linked to support for Hamas, it is exclusively linked to values, at this time, that Hamas pursues: the destruction of Israel. ”

“We welcome the board’s review of our guidance on this matter,” Meta said in a statement about the Oversight Board’s decision.

Frieda Powers
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