Several members of meta’s Oversight Board – which faced intense criticism after it determined the anti-Israel phrase “from the river to the sea” doesn’t constitute hate speech – have espoused views critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The advisory board, which claims to be independent from meta, determined that Facebook and Instagram users can use the controversial slogan – which has sprung up at anti-Israeli protests around the country – as long as it is not used in a way that glorifies Hamas or calls for violence.
Founded in 2020 with approval from meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, the Oversight Board currently consists of 21 members who “come from a variety of cultural and professional backgrounds, speak more than 30 languages and are chosen to be reflective of the diverse users of Facebook, Instagram and Threads,” according to its website.
Yet past remarks by several members call into question their ability to remain impartial regarding the slogan, which refers to the idea of a Palestinian state stretching across the land in between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea – the land currently controlled by Israel.
Its members include Tawakkol Karman, a Yemini activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, who declared in a speech last May at the Vatican that the “world is silent in front of the genocide and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people in Gaza." Israel denounced her speech as “flagrantly anti-Semitic.”
Alan Rusbridger, the former editor-in-chief of left-leaning UK news outlet The Guardian, penned a column earlier this year arguing that, while "real and vile antisemitism" does exist, the "horrors of 7 October most certainly did not happen in a vacuum." He also weighed in on the debate over "from the river to the sea."
"Some even thought the chant worthy of prosecution. Yet Netanyahu recently pronounced that Israel "must have security control over the entire territory west of the Jordan River” – thereby wiping out the idea of a state of Palestine. Is one sayable, and the other not?" Rusbridger wrote.
Nighat Dad, the director of the Pakistan-based Digital Rights Foundation, accused Facebook in a 2018 column of caving to Israel by “silencing the voices of a historically victimized people for calling of what can rightfully be called an occupying state is confirmation of the influence that some governments have on Silicon Valley tech giants.”
Endy Bayuni, an Oversight Board member and senior editor at the Jakarta Post, penned a column last April that argued Indonesia "should be seen championing an independent Palestinian state and full membership of the United Nations."
The Oversight Board did not reveal which of its members had participated in the vote or a tally of how many had voted for and against the decision. The Post has reached out to the board for comment.
Other notable members of the board include former Denmark prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, former United Nations spokesperson Khaled Monsour and Mexico City-based human rights lawyer Pamela San Martín.
The board acknowledged that a minority of its members dissented to the decision and pointed out that the phrase “from the river to the sea” even appears in the Hamas terror group’s charter.
“少数董事会成员认为meta应该采用默认规则，假设该短语构成对指定组织的美化，除非有明确的信号表明用户不支持哈马斯或10月7日的袭击，”董事会关于裁决的声明说。
与此同时，委员会的大多数选民认为这个短语“有多种含义，人们以各种方式和不同的意图使用它。”
“背景是至关重要的，”担任董事会联合主席的San Martín说。“简单地消除政治言论不是解决办法。需要有辩论的空间，尤其是在危机和冲突时期。”
该组织表示，其决定是“由五名成员组成的小组做出的，并由全体董事会的多数票通过”，并指出这些决定“不一定代表所有成员的观点”。
在监督委员会网站上列出的21名成员中，只有一名是以色列人。
帕尔默出生于耶路撒冷，是一名律师，曾任以色列司法部部长。2006年，以色列士兵沙利特遭到臭名昭著的绑架，帕尔默是与哈马斯谈判释放沙利特的小组成员之一。她的父母小时候在大屠杀中幸存下来。
在2021年3月接受《犹太内幕》(Jewish Insider)采访时，帕尔默表示，她加入监督委员会的部分原因是为了“以犹太人的身份看待反犹太主义或种族灭绝问题”。
监督倡导组织“打击反犹主义运动”(Combat Antisemitism Movement)称，监督委员会的决定“荒谬”，并表示这将助长反犹主义在网上的传播。
CAM首席执行官Sacha Roytman在一份声明中说:“‘从河流到海洋’这个口号的唯一目的是摧毁犹太人的家园。”“它的意图和意义都是种族灭绝，不是合法的政治或意识形态愿景，因为它针对的是一个犹太国家及其居民。”
今年5月，CAM向meta的监督委员会提交了一份白皮书，概述了它对为什么应该禁止这一口号的立场。
罗伊特曼补充说:“这表明了一种有意识的偏见，即元监督委员会中的一些人使用扭曲的逻辑和语言扭曲来保护反犹分子。”“我们向他们发送了这个词的历史和背景，以及它是如何被那些公开、自豪地呼吁在各地谋杀犹太人的人发明出来，并被用来呼吁种族灭绝的。”
“没有任何背景或扭曲的逻辑可以为这种暴行开脱。”
世界犹太人大会(World Jewish Congress)表示，对这一决定“深感失望”。
“恐怖组织哈马斯章程中的‘从河流到大海’这句话，是对以色列人和整个犹太世界的暴力的明确呼吁，”WJC说。“世界各地的犹太人都有作为犹太人自由生活的绝对权利，梅塔的决定无助于消除明确的反犹主义。言语很重要，尤其是在10月7日之后。”
