Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Benay Blend has written a
kvetchy little piece on the antisemitic Mondoweiss about how her
Arab friend Rima Najjar got banned from Quora. Blend would have us believe that
Najjar’s voice is being silenced because of her “national origin.” She suggests
there is a concerted effort to still voices such as Najjar’s citing a piece I
wrote some years back called “Quora:
The New Battlefront for Israel.”
The piece appears on the Israel
Forever Foundation website, the brainchild of Dr. Elana Yael Heideman. I met
Dr. Heideman at a bloggers meet-up about 5 years ago. She was getting ready to
launch her website and was looking for content that showed a love of Israel. Elana
didn’t care if I were right or left-wing, Haredi or Reform. All she cared about
was whether I had something true and nice to say about Israel.
Elana Heideman’s belief was
that Jews were too concerned with what divided us and needed to focus more on
what we shared. She wanted us to get back to that basic connection that we have
as a people, and she believed the key to that connection was Israel. A love for
Israel was something we shared, no matter our different backgrounds.
I liked the concept and so,
from time to time, I’d write something up for her website. These pieces were
always written from the standpoint of unapologetic love for Israel. Because
that is the entire thrust of the Israel Forever Foundation, and a writer always
tailors the writing to the venue.
Blend, on the other hand, would
have you believe that the Israel Forever Foundation and those of us who
volunteer our time and content there, are a sort of militia, aimed at robbing
others of their right to free speech. Of Najjar’s banishment from Quora, Blend
writes:
She handled herself with grace and strength, always clear in
her convictions, but that was not enough to counter the concerted effort of
groups like the Israel Forever Foundation, which runs pieces such as Varda
Epstein’s in which she describes how she “fight[s] back” against
pro-Palestinian voices on social media, including Quora. Using military terms,
she vows to “obliterate” any anti-Israel bias that she finds. “Because this is
war, Habibi,” she declares, thereby announcing a war of words that she will win
by default if there are no Palestinian voices left on Quora.
This, of course, is a
distortion of the truth, or an outright lie. It is certainly lacking in
context. From the perspective of the Israel Forever Foundation and from my own
perspective, Najjar is free to say
whatever she likes. She is even free to lie, because the Israel Forever
Foundation isn’t concerned with freedom of speech issues or in silencing
dissent.
I asked Elana Heideman to sum
up the purpose of the Israel Forever Foundation: why she does what she does. She
wrote:
Israel Forever was created to bridge the gap in knowledge,
understanding, and engagement with Israel as a vital and vibrant element of
Jewish life and identity. With the growing hate rhetoric, lies and demonization
of Israel and Jews, our content and resources are our contribution to
educators, parents, youth or community leaders, or anyone wanting to strengthen
their connection or activism opportunities. Whether in social media or in
person, we all must do all we can to equip and empower people to know and
protect Jewish history, rights and freedom - in Israel and everywhere in the
world - today, tomorrow and FOREVER.
I don’t see anything in there
about silencing voices or silencing dissent. The purpose of the Israel Forever
Foundation, rather, is to offer a resource to strengthen Jewish identity. It’s
to encourage people to take an active stand against the lies we see from people
like Blend by coming back at them with the truth.
The Israel Forever Foundation
is not meant to silence or divide. It is meant to draw the Jewish people closer
together. It’s certainly not about silencing “pro-Palestinian voices.”
As for me, I don’t fight
against voices. I fight against lies, with words.
It would not occur to me to “obliterate”
a voice, and I wouldn’t even know how.
I would, on the other hand, do
everything in my power to obliterate anti-Israel bias, whenever and wherever it is encountered, such as the bias we
see in Blend’s Mondoweiss piece. An
example of such bias is her reference to my use of “military terms.”
Here were the “military terms”
I used:
I want to answer that [anti-Israel Quora question] in such a
way that my Israel-loving bias will obliterate the anti-Israel bias expressed
in that question. Because this is war, Habibi.
And true love will always win out.
Najjar is getting ready to sue
Quora. Her lawyer says that the ban imposed on her by Quora is “based solely on
‘her advocacy for Palestinian rights through her opposition to Zionism’ and for
‘unlawfully deny[ing] her access to a place of public accommodation on the
basis of Dr. Najjar’s national origin.’”
But nowhere in Blend’s piece
does she offer any proof that Najjar’s ban is based on discrimination. Instead,
Blend says that being Jewish, she, Blend, would say exactly what Najjar wanted
to say, but when she said it, Quora often, though not always, let it through.
It was only when Najjar said the same things that the content was removed and the
ban imposed.
My answers were
not targeted near as often as her writing. This would seem to support the
contention that her ban was a case of censorship partly due to her national
origin. Her content, which countered the Zionist “narrative” so long imposed on
the struggle for justice in Palestine, was a problem for those busily
disseminating hasbara content. Being philosophically and politically in
agreement, she and I collaborated in answering questions. More often than not,
Dr. Najjar edited my writing so that the ideas stood out more clearly. And yet,
I was never a target of attacks that she received.
If Blend and Najjar have spent as much time on Quora as Blend
suggests, then they know that this is not how Quora works. Any user can report
a response or comment, adding a detailed complaint. Eventually a Quora
moderator looks at the report and decides whether or not the material should be
hidden, removed, or left alone.
Some Quorans do use the report feature to target those with
whom they disagree. But that targeting works both ways: many of my responses
and comments have been targeted in exactly this manner. Sometimes I win on
appeal. Sometimes I don’t. A lot of my content has been hidden or removed.
It’s not just one side, not just Najjar, and not just me,
either. One of my sons ended up with a lifetime ban just like Najjar’s for his
Israel advocacy.
Because that’s how it works: if enough of your responses and
comments are troublesome—meaning if enough users complain about you—Quora will
ban you for life.
This is clearly what happened with Najjar.
Now when I don’t win, I move on. I say, “Those are the
breaks.” It has never occurred to me to sue Quora, though, from time to time, I
have suspected an individual moderator of anti-Israel bias.
In my case, I am often certain that a Quoran with an
anti-Israel bias is using the report mechanism to silence my voice. But when it
happens, I don’t then get up on a soapbox and accuse people of employing “military
terms” to obliterate pro-Israel voices. I just buck up and keep on keeping on.
Najjar and her Jewish spokesperson, from my perspective, seem
to be drowning in litigious self-pity or perhaps just plain old sour grapes. It
can be rough out there on Quora. I don’t always like the rules. For instance, I
try not to use the word “Palestinian,” because I don’t believe there is a
distinct people known by this term. If I instead use the word “Arab,” someone
will report me. The same is true of Facebook.
This isn’t fair, of course. But it’s how Quora and Facebook
want it. If you want to play, you have to obey.
Najjar, in short, was not banned because of some inherent
bias against her “national origins.” She was banned because she used language
that offended people and violated Quora policies. Had she not done so and not
been banned for life, Najjar might have discovered, as I have, that there is
always a workaround: a way to tailor language to satisfy Quora specifications.
With a bit more creativity, Najjar might yet have been free
to speak her mind on Quora. But since she was not more creative, and offended
people, she is not free to speak her
mind on Quora. And perhaps Najjar ought to take responsibility for that,
instead of hiring lawyers and having her Jewish friend complain about me and the Israel Forever Foundation—who
have nothing whatsoever to do with Najjar’s apparent lack of control—on Mondoweiss.
UPDATE: Before this piece was even published, another article appeared by Blend, this time in the Palestine Chronicle, making the same accusations, and using my Israel Forever Foundation article as an example of the "concerted campaign of harassment and censorship by Zionists and Israelis” that is targeting Najjar "for her content." Here she goes into even more detail, and winds up by suggesting that this "campaign" is at the behest of the Israeli government.
UPDATE: Before this piece was even published, another article appeared by Blend, this time in the Palestine Chronicle, making the same accusations, and using my Israel Forever Foundation article as an example of the "concerted campaign of harassment and censorship by Zionists and Israelis” that is targeting Najjar "for her content." Here she goes into even more detail, and winds up by suggesting that this "campaign" is at the behest of the Israeli government.
