Tuesday, November 01, 2022

11/01 Links Pt1: How Israel’s elections may impact the Middle East; UN: Suspend adoption of IHRA definition of antisemitism; Canada Calls to Oust Iran From UN Women’s Rights Commission

From Ian:

Seth Frantzman: How Israel’s elections may impact the Middle East
As Israelis voted for the fifth time in less than four years, the region could greet these latest elections with a shrug. After all, another election will probably come in a year or so.

However, the current government of Prime Minister Yair Lapid and alternate Prime Minister Naftali Bennett made major strides in the region. Lapid, Bennett and Defense Minister Benny Gantz put a premium on public meetings and outreach around the Middle East, including hosting such important forums as the Negev Summit.

On the other hand, Lapid also rushed into the agreement with Lebanon days before the election. This matters, and on policies from Ukraine to Turkey, there could be shifts after the election that impact the region.

Israel and Turkey
One of the most important shifts in the last year has been Israel’s decision to work with Turkey. After years in which Ankara had bashed the Jewish state, comparing Israel to Nazi Germany and backing Hamas, Turkey sought to change its tone over the last year. This resulted in numerous high-level meetings and visits.

The normalization between Ankara and Jerusalem may be only on the surface, because Turkey’s ruling AKP Party is the same party as before the reconciliation. But it could also mark a shift that continues after the election.

It’s clear that with Turkey, there was a choice to normalize relations after former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu left office. Ankara had increased its extreme rhetoric and anti-Israel behavior during Netanyahu’s 10 years in power. This included the launching of the Mavi Marmara flotilla, as well as hosting Hamas leaders and vocal threats to “liberate al-Aqsa.”

Ankara’s behavior occurred against the backdrop of close Turkey-US relations during the Trump administration and its increasing role in Syria. It’s not entirely clear what led to Turkey’s increasingly anti-Israel behavior, especially considering that in the early 2000s, the countries had managed to continue amicable relations despite the differences between the AKP and Israel. The party is rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood and is close to Hamas ideologically, making it naturally hostile to Israel.

During the Netanyahu era, there was little chance of reconciliation with Turkey. Netanyahu always believed that Israel had to exude strength in the face of threats, and he wasn’t afraid to critique Turkey’s actions.

Today, both Ankara and Jerusalem have shifted rhetoric, and this has enabled major changes on the political and diplomatic fronts.
The Commentary Magazine Podcast: Will Bibi Make a Comeback?
Dan Senor joins the podcast today to map out five scenarios for the Israeli election results—Israel is voting today. And then we discuss why professional Republicans seem a little more anxious than thrilled about the clear pattern in the polling about what’s going to happen next Tuesday here in the American elections. Give a listen.


Netanyahu's peace plan with the Saudis may also end the Arab-Israel conflict
Israel’s Leader of the Opposition Benjamin Netanyahu has broken his silence - giving his nod of approval to examining the Saudi-proposed Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine solution (Saudi Solution) :
“I think the big prize is peace with Saudi Arabia, which I intend to achieve if I go back into office… The rise of Israeli power facilitated the Abraham Accords, and the continual nurturing of Israeli power will also nurture a broader peace with Saudi Arabia and nearly all of the rest of the Arab world. I intend to bring the Arab-Israeli conflict to a close.”

Peace with Saudi Arabia and ending the Arab-Israeli conflict will require Netanyahu to successfully negotiate to make the Saudi Solution - published in June - acceptable. That would see:
· Jordan, Gaza and part of Judea and Samaria ('West Bank') being merged into one territorial entity to be called The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine - with its capital in Amman - not Jerusalem
· Abandonment of the 74 years-old Palestinian Arab demand to return and live in Israel
· Recognition of Jewish sovereignty in part of Judea and Samaria ('West Bank') for the first time in 3000 years
· No new Palestinian Arab state between Israel and Jordan

Yesh Atid Party Leader - Yair Lapid, Blue and White Party Leader - Benny Gantz - and Labor Party Leader - Merav Michaeli - have all rejected the Saudi Solution outright - aligning their respective parties policies with President Biden’s to continue pursuing the failed unachievable two-state solution first dreamt up by the European Union in 1980 and endorsed by the United Nations in 2003.

The leaders of all other Israeli political parties have yet to comment on the Saudi Solution.

Netanyahu, however, indicated his thinking was clearly in sync with the game-changing proposals.
Hundreds of Jews visit Temple Mount on election day
Twice the number of Jews visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on election day this year compared to last year, the Temple Mount Administration reported on Tuesday afternoon.

“The visitors said they took advantage of the election day vacation to go up and visit the site where the House of God stood,” the administration said in a statement. “It reminds them of how fortunate they are to be in a Jewish state, voting for a Jewish government.”

Nearly 300 Jews had already visited the mount by 10:30 a.m., the administration said.

Visits to the Temple Mount by Jews have been on the rise over the past year in general.

Some 47,988 Jews visited the Mount last year, in Hebrew year 5782—a 94% increase over the year before.




Suspend adoption of IHRA definition of antisemitism, UN official says
The push for nations to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance of antisemitism should be suspended, United Nations special rapporteur on racism E. Tendayi Achiume told the General Assembly's Third Committee on Monday.

"I highlight the controversial status, divisive effects and negative human rights impacts of the IHRA working definition on antisemitism," Achiume said in speaking of a report she had submitted to the committee.

The report, she said, focused on the rising dangers of antisemitism, neo-nazism and racism, but simultaneously was critical about the instrumentalization of tools designed to address these issues.

"Precisely because .. antisemitism remains an urgent issue of human rights concern, I urge the UN system and UN member states to launch an open and inclusive process," she said.

Her statement against the standardized definition adopted by at least 38 countries was rejected by a number of nations including the United States, Canada and Israel as well as by the European Union.

A United States envoy charged that Achiume's report "politicized the IHRA definition" adding that the US unequivocally condemns antisemitism.

A Canadian envoy said the definition is a carefully crafted one to enable a common fight against antisemitism and it is not meant to inhibit the ability to criticize the state of Israel.

"Too often the contemporary examples included in the [IHRA] definition is employed as justification for hatred.. online and off and in university campuses and across public discourse," he said.

"The illustrative contemporary examples that you describe as divisive are precisely what has led to the upsurge in violence you highlighted in your report," he said.

The EU, along with Albania, Bulgaria Hungary, Romania, Austria, Italy and the United Kingdom all spoke to how helpful the definition was in identifying and combatting antisemitism.


When an anti-Israeli UN official denies any bias
Clearly, the COI triumvirate is immune to the stench of anti-Jewish bias. Its third member, Chris Sidoti, mockingly said that "accusations of antisemitism are thrown around like rice at a wedding." Except it's not a joke when the hate is real.

No wonder the COI's latest report, just presented to the UN General Assembly, was slammed by Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan, who noted that 30% of the UNHRC's resolutions attack Israel – more condemnations than against North Korea, Iran and Syria combined. Gratifyingly, Erdan's statement was supported by Hungary, the United States, Canada, Australia, Guatemala, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Germany, among others.

Shamefully, the UNHRC does not fret about China's imprisonment of a million ethnic Uyghurs; Russia's violent colonialism in seizing huge parts of Ukraine; the world's largest population of slaves in Africa; or billions of people living in more than 100 nations who are denied basic democratic rights. Instead, the United Nations focuses inordinate attention excoriating the world's only Jewish state – one of the world's most vibrant and successful democracies; one of the most inspiring stories of self-determination by an indigenous people; one of the world's most ethnically diverse nations, of which 20% are Arabs; one of the freest countries for women and sexual minorities; birthplace of some of the world's most innovative technologies; and one of the "happiest" nations on earth.

Yet tiny Israel has only 9.5 million people – only 7.5 million Jews. All Jews worldwide number just 14.8 million. Jews make up only about 0.2% of the world's population of 7.95 billion people. Only one in 1,000 of the world's people are Jews. With all the injustice wrought by North Korean, Syrian, Iranian, Russian dictatorships on hundreds of millions of people, why does Israel deserve so much attention from the United Nations?

If you try to explain the disproportion of criticism, violent attacks and outright hate expended on the Jewish people and their one and only state – in the United Nations and on the streets of the United States and Europe – there simply cannot be any other explanation than racism. Racism means hateful prejudice with no rational basis. Racism against Jews is antisemitism.

Like all antisemites, Navi Pillay will deny her prejudice until her dying day. We can't expect her – or other antisemites to stop just because we call them out. However, last January, a bipartisan group of 42 House members called for US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to defund the UNHRC Commission of Inquiry. Indeed, the United States should immediately withdraw funding for the Commission of Inquiry…preferably also including its parent, the decidedly antisemitic UNHRC. Neither deserves our moral or financial support.
Israel joins 50 nations in condemning China's imprisonment of Uyghurs
Israel joined 50 countries including the United States in condemning China's forced imprisonment of over a million Uyghurs, according to a statement Canada's Ambassador Bob Rae read out at the United Nations Third Committee on Monday.

Another 66 nations, including the Palestinian Authority and Iran, issued a counter-statement in support of China, that was put forward by Cuba.

Concern over human rights in China
Rae said that the 50 signatories to his statement "were gravely concerned about the human rights situation in the People’s Republic of China, especially the ongoing human rights violations of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang."

The 50 nations called on China to take "prompt steps to release all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty in Xinjiang, and to urgently clarify the fate and whereabouts of missing family members and facilitate safe contact and reunion." Report on evidence of crimes against humanity

He referenced an August report by former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet, which concluded that China's discriminatory detention of the Uyghurs, “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity."

Bachelet's report, he said, "relies extensively on China’s own records, it makes an important contribution to the existing evidence of serious and systematic human rights violations in China.

"This includes evidence of large-scale arbitrary detention and systematic use of invasive surveillance on the basis of religion and ethnicity; severe and undue restrictions to legitimate cultural and religious practices, identity and expression," Rae said.


Why Azerbaijan is vital to the West
The United States’ relationship with Azerbaijan has become more important than ever. As a country that sits on the borders of Russia and Iran, Azerbaijan has always sought good relations with the Western world, and it offers its rich natural gas resources and wheat industry as a solution to Europe’s energy crisis and the developing global food crisis. This is not the first time Azerbaijan has aided the West. For example, not too long ago, it sent assistance to help NATO forces in Afghanistan. In a region of the world dominated by terrorism and extremism, it is of vital importance for America to have a friend like Azerbaijan.

Terrorism and religious radicalism are threats to Western civilization. Today, the theocratic Iranian regime is arming Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Houthis in Yemen and Shia militias in Iraq. In recent days, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards launched a large-scale military drill along the Azerbaijan-Armenia border in an attempt to sabotage the fragile peace between the two countries. They are doing so because, for quite some time, Azerbaijan has helped the U.S. and Israel thwart regional terrorism—including terrorism sponsored by Iran—which threatens the entire Middle East. As a result, Iran has been using the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia to weaken Azerbaijan’s position in the West.

Anyone who cares about the future of Western civilization should not let that happen. According to a World Bank report, “The COVID-19 pandemic caused a major setback in global poverty reduction. Now, rising food and energy prices fueled by climate shocks and conflict have halted the recovery. Average wheat, maize and rice prices in October 2022 are 18%, 27% and 10% higher, respectively, than in October 2021. Meanwhile, wheat and maize prices are 38% and 4% higher, respectively, and rice prices 21% lower than in January 2021.”

Azerbaijan may be the key to solving this problem. Israel has already vowed to provide Azerbaijan with the technical assistance it needs to engage in mass cultivation of wheat. It also held a three-day conference designed to showcase technology that can address problems of food security, which was attended by Azerbaijan’s deputy minister of agriculture.
Israel and Bahrain Looking to Ink Free Trade Pact By End of Year
Israel and Bahrain hope to sign a free trade agreement by the end of 2022 in a bid to jump-start bilateral business ties two years after the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Bahraini Minister of Industry and Commerce Zayed Alzayani, who is heading an economic delegation visiting Israel this week, said negotiations for a bilateral free trade pact are progressing.

“We are in negotiations and expect to sign by the end of the year,” Alzayani said in an interview with Israel’s Army Radio. Alzayani went on to express disappointment with what he said had only been a moderate volume of bilateral trade.

Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates in Sept. 2020 agreed to formalize their diplomatic ties with Israel under the so-called “Abraham Accords,” brokered with the help of the US.

Since then, Israel and Bahrain have launched direct flights and have been working on warming defense ties. In November, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), one of the country’s three largest defense contractors, will present its civilian and defense aviation hardware at the Bahrain International Airshow.

In May this year, Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) inked a free trade deal – the Jewish state’s first with an Arab country which is expected to lift annual trade between the two economies to more than $10 billion by 2027 from around $1.4 billion as of August.
Bahrain’s Minister of Industry & Commerce visits Margalit Startup City
Bahrain's Minister of Industry and Commerce, Mr. H.E. Zayed Rashid Al Zayani, was welcomed on Monday to the Jerusalem headquarters of Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) and Margalit Startup Cities organizations, as well as their founder and chairman Erel Margalit.

Margalit Startup Cities introduced a project to Al Zayani involving advancing innovation in social advancements and developing an ecosystem that brings together public, private and third-sector institutions.

“For us, innovation is not only business but a way to bring people together. Margalit Startup City is a place where young people, artists and musicians, Jews and Arabs, come together," Margalit explained to the minister.

After giving Al Zayani examples of regional cooperation within the Margalit Startup City, he stressed the opportunity to increase cooperation via Israeli technology with Bahrain and countries across the region.

"Bahrain is a leader in fintech and is creating a workplace in insurance, and it would be a privilege to work together with you in this field, along with climate tech, food tech, and health tech – all of these technologies can make a big difference," Margalit declared.


Turkish Intel Ran Antisemitic Websites, Financed by Erdogan's Family
Turkish intelligence agency MIT secretly generated content for several rabidly anti-Semitic and anti-Western websites that were set up and financed by Serhat Albayrak, a 49-year-old organized crime suspect indicted in the past as an associate to a one-time al-Qaeda financier.

According to a cache of secret documents obtained by Nordic Monitor, Albayrak, son of the late Islamist ideologue Sadık Albayrak, who was convicted and served prison time, funded and provided logistics for multiple hate-mongering websites that smeared critics and opponents of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan with defamatory anti-Semitic, anti-Western content.

Most of the content published on the websites was discreetly provided by Nuh Yılmaz, 48, a hard-core Islamist who was put in a senior position at MIT in August 2013 by the Erdoğan government. Yılmaz had worked for a Turkish publication in the 1990s that was financed by Iran and promoted the Iranian mullah regime. The magazine was shut down by a court decision, and its managers were indicted and stood trial.

MIT's black propaganda websites were identified by investigators as medyagundem.com, medyasavar.com, haber10.com and karakutu.com. The most notorious among them was Medyagundem, which peddled conspiracy theories against Jews and promoted hatred toward them with hundreds of articles and associated critics of Erdoğan with Zionist, Western plots.

"The Jews established their system on the destruction and wiping out of everybody except them," one article published on Medyagundem in July 2014 said. The unsigned article blamed Jews for all wars in the world, claiming that the more the world's population decreases, the greater amount of oxygen Jews would get. "Wherever there is a war in the world, even if the Jew is not there, s/he will be involved with weapons and the war industry materiel."
Pro-Palestinian, pro-Iran Lula retakes Brazil’s presidency -analysis
Jerusalem lost a friend in Brasilia this week, when President Jair Bolsonaro, an enthusiastic Israel supporter, lost to former president Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, who is vocally pro-Palestinian and nurtured ties between Brazil and Iran.

Da Silva, who is often just called “Lula,” became the first Brazilian president to visit Israel in 2010, but the trip was marked with controversy.

Lula's support for Palestinians
The year was the 150th anniversary of Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl’s birth, and the Foreign Ministry added a visit to his grave to the protocol for visiting foreign dignitaries. Then-US vice president Joe Biden laid a wreath on Herzl’s grave weeks before da Silva’s visit, but the Brazilian president refused to do so. Israel’s foreign minister at the time, Avigdor Liberman, refused to meet with him due to the breach of protocol.

Then, da Silva donned a keffiyeh on his shoulders and laid a wreath at the tomb of Palestinian leader and arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat in Ramallah.

Concurrent media reports said that da Silva sought to meet with Hamas representatives, as well, which he thought would encourage peace and reconciliation. However, the meeting did not come to be.

Later in 2010, Brazil recognized a Palestinian state, setting off a wave of such recognitions in South America.

Da Silva continues to support unilateral Palestinian statehood, including Ramallah’s bid to become a UN member. In June of this year, he again wore a keffiyeh at an event and said that “Palestinians deserve our full attention and solidarity.”
Seth Frantzman: How Hezbollah can use maritime deal as excuse for war
In the wake of the maritime deal between Israel and Lebanon, there remain key questions about Hezbollah’s role and its future actions.

Israel agreed to a deal on the eve of the election, and it also appeared to back down from its earlier claims, agreeing to a line off the coast that gives in to most of Lebanon’s demands. Although the deal has been praised by the US, it leaves questions about whether it will bring stability or whether Hezbollah can use it as a pretext to create tensions in the future and lay claim to areas off the coast.

Hezbollah, which appeared to be closely consulted by the Lebanese side about the deal, has claimed that it is some kind of a victory. At the same time, the terrorist group has also reserved for itself the right to “defend” Lebanon’s maritime claims, meaning that it dictated the deal without being a signatory.

This puts Israel in a complex position because Hezbollah can claim at any point in the future a need to start a war over the deal, while Lebanon can never be held to account for Hezbollah’s actions.

The privilege Hezbollah always enjoys is unprecedented in the world. It controls Lebanon and basically controls who will be appointed the country’s president; it controls a swath of southern Lebanon through militia checkpoints; it stockpiles a massive, illegal arsenal of missiles that threaten the region. Yet it is never held to account for any of these actions.

For instance, Lebanon can fire rockets at Israel or launch drones at gas platforms off the coast, and it can pretend that it isn’t responsible, so any Israeli actions against Hezbollah are a “violation” of Lebanon’s sovereignty.
Suspected terrorist arrested for trying to kidnap woman
A 51-year-old man was arrested for allegedly attempting to kidnap a woman in her 20s on Tuesday in what the police said seems to have been a nationalistic-motivated crime in the city of Tiberias.

The woman initially called the police stating that an unknown man tried to force her into his car on David Ramez Street in Tiberias.

The arrest was made shortly after police officers arrived at the scene and managed to locate the suspect. He was brought to the local police station for questioning.
The Israel Guys: TERRORIST OPENS FIRE On Father and Son | His Survival Was a Miracle
Ronen Chananyah was shot and killed by a Palestinian Terrorist near Hebron Saturday night leaving his son, who was with him at the time moderately injured. Some think this might have been an attack aimed at MK Itamar Ben-Gvir whose residence is nearby where the shooting took place. A Boston BDS group glorifies the terrorists of the Lion’s Den Terror group by calling them “martyrs” who were “murdered” by Zionist forces. In a huge show of support for Judea and Samaria, Surfside, Florida signed a sister-city agreement with the Samaria regional council. And car ramming terror attack in the Jordan Valley leaves 5 civilians injured and the terrorist neutralized.




Taking a TikTok journey straight to the Lions’ Den
Earlier this week I was speaking to a friend of mine about the rise of the Lions’ Den terror cell in the city of Nablus in the West Bank. We were talking about how their rise was largely a result of becoming TikTok famous, with terrorists posting TikToks of themselves shooting at Israeli civilians and soldiers. As someone who speaks Arabic and follows various Palestinian channels on Twitter to understand their media landscape and how they view the world, I was intrigued as to how videos on TikTok, an app I had yet to download, were influencing this new generation of Palestinians.

I remarked that it would be interesting to see how long it took for the TikTok algorithm to begin showing me these Lions’ Den videos, to which my friend replied, “only a crazy person would do that.”

A few minutes later, with TikTok downloaded, I began my search for the Lions’ Den videos that were inspiring this new generation of Palestinian terror.

Some notes:
I didn’t sign up for TikTok using any email, phone number, or identification of any kind.
I came into this with a basic knowledge of the TikTok algorithm – the faster you swipe over something the less likely you are to see something similar. Conversely, the longer you watch a video, or even repeat a video, the more likely the algorithm is to show you similar ones.
I went into this racing to see how fast I could find the videos. This was not a natural progression, rather a concerted effort to find these Lions’ Den videos.


UN Watch: Canadian Parliament Calls to Oust Iran From UN Women’s Rights Commission
In a consensus decision by all political parties, the Canadian parliament today became the first legislature in the world to demand the removal of the Islamic Republic of Iran from the UN’s top women’s rights body. See text of motion below.

Today’s motion, introduced by Conservative Party Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman, was adopted by Canada’s legislature following a similar call made today by New Zealand’s prime minister, and yesterday by Canada’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister.

The motion was welcomed internationally by human rights activists, including Hillel Neuer, executive director of the independent non-governmental organization UN Watch, based in Geneva, who first exposed Iran’s election to the UN Commission on the Status of Women in April 2021.

“Every day, we see more and more how little Iran respects women’s rights and human rights, and so we commend political leaders and lawmakers in Canada and New Zealand for taking action to remove this moral obscenity, which is casting a shadow upon the reputation of the United Nations as a whole,” said Neuer.

“Not only is it the height of hypocrisy for the Islamic regime of Iran to hold a position of leadership on women’s rights — it is dangerous. The mullahs are using their membership on the UN’s top women’s rights committee as a platform for propaganda to suggest the Tehran regime has a legitimate concern for women’s rights. They do not.”

“It’s time to put an end to enabling murderous dictatorships like Iran to spread disinformation to justify their gross abuses against women and girls, and against the population at large.”

“Now is the time to match the words we have heard with action. UN member states must show the world that they can work responsibly to oust the Iranian regime.”


U.S. opposes Iran on UN Women’s Commission, will “take close look” at how to expel regime
In response to UN Watch’s drafting of a UN resolution to expel Iran’s regime from the UN Commission on the Status of Women, which was submitted to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, spokesman Ned Price said that “Iran’s membership on the UN Commission on Women is contemptible… It is outrageous.”

“We’ve always been clear that some of the worst human rights abusers sit on certain UN commissions,” said Price, adding “we don’t believe Iran should sit on this commission.”

The spokesman of the State Department said the United States is “going to look at proposals to effect that outcome. We’re going to take a close look at ideas, and we’ll lend our support where it’s appropriate for us to do so.”

Others who have supported the removal of Iran include the governments of Canada and New Zealand.


Iranian teen girl beaten to death by police for tearing Khomeini's photo - report
An Iranian girl in middle school was beaten to death after police officers found a torn-up photo of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini in one of her schoolbooks, local news outlet in the Sistan and Baluchestan Province Haalvsh reported on Sunday night.

The girl, identified as Parmis Hamnava, was at her school in Iranshahr in the Sistan and Baluchestan Province when security forces entered the school in order to search the books of the students, discovering the torn-up photo in Hamnava's textbook. According to Haalvsh, security forces severely beat Hamnava in front of the other students and she later died of her wounds in the hospital. The incident reportedly took place last week.

The security forces reportedly forced Hamnava's family and teachers to promise that they would not speak to the press about the incident before handing over her body to them to bury.

The IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency rejected the report, claiming that there was no such student in the Iranian education system and that no students were killed in Iranshahr.


Emily Schrader: Musk must consider social media's impact on terrorism
THIS WAVE of terrorism demonstrated the direct relationship linking social media incitement to violence and deadly attacks on civilians. The primary motivator for these acts of terrorism was disinformation promoted by Palestinian terror groups and echoed by activists, “Al Aqsa is in danger.” Incidentally, this is the same myth that motivated the Guardians of the Wall operation, in 2021.

Since that time, Facebook and Instagram have improved in dealing with direct incitement to violence on their platforms (except apparently from Ayatollah Khamenei), but the impact of antisemitism and related disinformation, such as conspiracy theories that the Jews or Israel are behind COVID-19, is deadly serious and has lead to in-person attacks on Jews around the world. Antisemitism is unlike other forms of hatred in that it’s an ancient form of racism that often manifests itself today under the guise of anti-Zionism or so-called criticism of Israel. Due to its complex nature, many don’t truly understand antisemitism and the risks of letting it go unaddressed online or otherwise.

The best way for social media platforms to deal with online antisemitism is by adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition. This provides a basis for understanding antisemitic speech, helps limit the reach of antisemitic content, flags it with a warning about incorrect or antisemitic information and helps prevent it from going viral.

In the case of public figures, a different approach should be considered of removing specific content rather than entire users and automatically monitoring subsequent content from that user. Any content that continues to promote, for example, antisemitism could be automatically removed before going to their millions of followers.

The reality is that antisemitism online cannot be dealt with through a black-and-white absolutist free-speech lens. The game on social media is different, faster and more dangerous than previous methods of communication and the strategy for dealing with it needs to adapt. Unfortunately, because of Twitter’s algorithm, extremist content is inherently promoted – but there are steps that can be taken by Twitter to respect free speech while dealing with antisemitism appropriately.

Twitter’s new owner would do well to consider the plethora of evidence demonstrating the relationship between antisemitic content from public leaders online and the incidents of violence against Jews when he shapes policies about free speech at Twitter.

By monitoring content through the lens of the IHRA definition and limiting exposure through warnings and an algorithm that prevents the trending of antisemitic content, Twitter can greatly reduce the amount of damage done to Jews on its platform.




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