Antisemitism is personal—even when it’s only on Facebook (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

Antisemitism is personal. Like snowflakes—no wokeness intended—no two Jews experience antisemitism the same way. Even the same Jew will experience antisemitism differently when there are multiple incidents or when exposure to antisemitism is ongoing.

Social media antisemitism is probably the safest kind of antisemitism, because the antisemite hides behind a keyboard. An ugly comment, it must be acknowledged, is not the same as being beaten by gangs. Still, there is always the possibility that the online antisemite will doxx you, or use what you write to identify you to people who could do you real harm IRL (in real life).

The comments themselves range from brainless to so ugly that you gasp out loud from the shock of it. One particular antisemitic barb will make you giggle for its stupidity, while another will make you tremble, and your eyes well up with tears. Sometimes you feel a wry sense of the familiar. This is what it is. This is our lived experience, to be hated for false reasons or for no reasons at all.

Sometimes the hurt is compounded by the attitude of the people at the top. People like Mark Zuckerberg who has made his community standards such that horrific antisemitic comments and memes are left up, while our innocent pro-Israel memes and comments are removed when reported by Arabs and their supporters.

A pattern has developed wherein I report the offensive, antisemitic post and Facebook says no, it doesn’t violate its community standards. I then appeal where they allow it, and they say no again, and the vile antisemitic post stays up.

Here are some antisemitic comments and memes that I have reported over the past several weeks. Facebook has refused to take action:

 

In my personal experience of social media however, the worst offender in allowing antisemitic comments and online calls for genocide, is Quora. It’s all anti-Israel, antisemitic lies and propaganda posed as questions. Sure, you can report antisemitic questions and comments and they’ll be collapsed or deleted, but repeat offenders are never banned. I think about leaving or even muting Quora all the time, but I stay, mostly to encourage those still interested in learning the truth about the Jewish people and Israel.

Here’s a selection of 26 antisemitic Quora questions that have accumulated over the past 12 days and are awaiting my attention—for me to either reply or pass:

1.      With the utmost respect intended, how is it possible for so many average Israelis on sites as this to defend their state's ongoing assault on Gaza, when even such mainstream " Western " sources like Oxfam attest to its singular level of brutality?

2.      Why did Hamas commit terrorism against Israel which can annihilate itself entirely?

3.      Does Satan support Israel victory over the people of Palestine?

4.      Has Trump asked Netanyahu to cause maximum embarrassment for Biden, with Israel's assault on Gaza, by completely ignoring Biden's pleas for restraint?

5.      Would there have been more outcry against Israel's actions if any major Fortune 100 companies had been headquartered in Gaza?

6.      Would people who oppose Yemen's blockade of Israel-linked ships also have opposed the partisans who blew up Nazi train lines?

7.      Why is Palestine more pro-American and trustworthy than Israel?

8.      Are Israelis going to give the stolen land back to the Palestinians and stop their thieving ways?

9.      Why doesn't Israel just give back the land it won and pretend the war never happened and we get a 2 state solution?

10.   Why are Israelis basically flat out admitting to genocidal intent by calling approximately 1.15 million minors (including children) terrorists and "the enemy" when asked why Israel was withholding water, food and medicine from them if not genocide?

11.   It’s only a matter of time until our generation is elected to office, and the rogue terrorist state of Israel will cease to exist, but what can we do in the meantime to stop Israel's bloodbath?

12.   What is the reasoning behind Israel refusing to embed journalists to show the world Hamas is still aggressive and leaving the world to only see civilian suffering? [untrue]

13.   It was just last year that Israel was funding Hamas millions of dollars in cash and weapons. What happened that made Hamas attack the people that support them?

14.   Do you think Israel will rebuild Gaza for the Palestinians, or do you think they will just steal the land?

15.   Why does Africa love Hamas so much, should Israel start a war with them?

16.   Why do the Zionists in the social media persistently seek to dehumanize the Palestinians, despite having themselves been subjected to similar dehumanization tactics by Hitler that led to genocide against them?

17.   Why does America seem unable to influence or control Israel, while other countries supporting Palestine exert more control over the situation?

18.   Is Israel’s attack on Gaza legitimate?

19.   Why am I seeing so many Israeli propaganda posts in my feed?

20.   Polls show Israel has completely lost younger Americans with 74% or more disapproving of how it has handled the Hamas-Israel war. Has Netanyahu and his right wing government permanently damaged the US - Israel relationship or can it come back? [false]

21.   Why was the USA disturbed by the disruption of navigation in the Red Sea and not disturbed by genocidal crimes committed by Israel in Gaza, but rather supported it in that?

22.   Is the only way of stopping Israel's slaughter of Palestinian civilians in Gaza for ten [sic] USA to withdraw all support from Israel? If so, isn't it morally incumbent on them to do so?

23.   Why is Western media calling the Palestinian genocide a war, and censoring people in support of Palestine?

24.   Is Israel using artificial intelligence to deny humanity and wage war?

25.   Is someone who supports both Israel in Gaza and Russia in Ukraine a pawn of the Likud?

26.   Is it true that the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7th was relatively hilarious?

That last query was actually older, from early December 2023. I leave it in my inbox as a future reminder of a time when the world was once again overrun by masses of people rejoicing at Jewish suffering while too many watched on, indifferent. Atrocities are never hilarious. Good people know this. Yet Quora, as powerful as it is, with its 400 million active monthly users, leaves this question up on its website where it has sat now for seven weeks. Is Quora’s indifference to antisemitism evidence of malfeasance? Is Mark Zuckerberg’s refusal to ban evil antisemitic memes and comments, evidence of his malfeasance?

Which leads to another question: Are antisemitic evil, hate, and depravity still real if they exist only in the virtual halls of Quora and Facebook? The answer depends on your personal experience of antisemitism. One Jew will laugh off an antisemitic comment, or block it from their consciousness, while others may feel hurt or anger. But no matter how a Jew experiences antisemitism, some damage is done, even if the “damage” consists of absorbing the bitter lesson that not all, or even most people are good.  

It’s a lesson that Jews have been forced to learn and relearn over millennia, a lesson that perhaps even Anne Frank was forced to learn in the end. We’ll never know, because Anne Frank was murdered before she could tell us, because she was a Jew.

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What to Answer Anti-Israel Idiots (but it won’t help) (Judean Rose)

Our small apartment is, at present, full to the brim with refugees: children and grandchildren from Israeli towns and cities under bombardment by rocket fire. It is noisy, crowded, and messy, and still, we are urging yet more of our many children to leave their homes in cities getting the worst of it, to seek refuge with us—we can always accommodate one more.

The horrible people shooting rockets at my children and grandchildren find the town where we live to be too small to be an interesting target. They aim for maximum casualties and we’re just not enough people for them to bother with (for now). As such, it is a relief to have the ability offer my family refuge, as inconvenient and hectic as that may be for all of us.

As my home overflows with people, my inbox fills with notifications of anti-Israel Quora questions, or rather propaganda not very well disguised as questions. I answer some, and decline to answer others, as the mood strikes, just a surgical in and out of the Quora interface. Those who seek a genuine understanding of what is happening on the ground in our region always thank me, however they are few and far between. The others either ignore my responses or attack and insult me.

That’s fine. Once the haters get out of bounds, I report them, and then they are banned from Quora. Of course, these baduns proliferate like cockroaches, so I just don’t get too caught up in the (mean and snotty) repartee. I have a job and a life.

People are always asking me to supply a source for their side of a debate, or worse yet, to jump into the fray of a debate when they’ve lost their way. But I don’t do debates. Debates on subjects specific to this region are always about who hangs in the longest, and not about either facts or history. They get ugly and ad hominem and keep you up at night gnashing your teeth, thinking, “I should have said this. I should have said that,” and seriously, there’s no point. It doesn’t persuade. It doesn’t end the rockets or the hate. It’s just people bumping egos one against the other online, just zeroes and ones.

But hey. If debate is your thing, knock yourself out, and I’ll even supply some grist for your mill—just don’t ask me to take over when you lose steam—I’m too busy wiping noses, changing diapers, and serving as a short-order cook and entertainment center, while holding down a fulltime job. Not to mention grinding my teeth down to the nubbins in my sleep in my fury at the nasty people of Gaza.

Varda’s Primer on Some Basic Anti-Israel Questions and How to Answer Them (but you probably shouldn’t bother):

Q. Why does Israel complain about Hamas? Hamas is weak and doesn’t have advanced weapons. Most of its rockets fell short.

A. Children and grandchildren have been made refugees by rocket fire. They’ve taken refuge in “safer” smaller towns because the rockets have made their lives a living hell. Adults cannot work. Children cannot go to school. Schools and synagogues have been hit. We witness, on a daily basis, preschool boys and girls completely traumatized by having their sleep interrupted by sirens, booms, and broken glass, the rush into safe rooms, the nervous adults, and reports of a child they know, or close to their age, who lives close to their home, dying of a direct rocket hit. They hear sirens and their homes shake at all hours.

To even ask this question is insane. How would you feel if your town was targeted with rockets day and night? Are “only” 10 Israeli deaths, including that of a 6-year-old child, not enough for us to have the right to “complain” about Hamas? Are rockets that kill and traumatize, not advanced enough for us to respond? 

Clearly, those who want us to put up and shut up are antisemites, full stop.

Q. Why can't the Middle East become peaceful? Who should be blamed?

A. Blame those who will not accept a Jewish State on Jewish indigenous territory within any borders—those who won’t stop targeting Jewish Israeli civilians.

Q. Why is Israel reluctant to grant the Palestinians full rights and representation in the Israeli government? Why won’t they end apartheid and attempt to unite all people of their country?

A. Your question has a flawed premise. “Palestinians” don’t want full rights and representation in the Israeli government, which is why we gave them autonomy in their villages in Judea and Samaria, and in Gaza, from which, by the way, Israel expelled thousands of Jews from their homes in 2004, in order to offer the Arabs self-rule on Jew-free Israeli territory. But does this make them peaceful? No. Because they want all the territory and will not stop targeting Israeli civilians, because they cannot have all of the territory, which is, by the way, Jewish indigenous territory.

In other words, in the PA-ruled areas of Judea and Samaria, and in Hamas-ruled Gaza, Arabs have their OWN representation by their OWN democratically elected governments.

In Israel, there is no apartheid. Israeli Arab citizens of Israel have full rights. The same rights as Jewish citizens of Israel.

None of this unites all the people of the country, because the Arabs of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza want the country to be totally expunged of any Jewish presence.

Q. Why did Israel embark on the unjustifiable policy of evicting Palestinians from their own homes in Gaza and stoop down to the level of grabbing and occupying those houses for themselves, thus causing the present war?

A. It didn’t. The Arabs residing in this Jewish-owned property agreed in court to pay rent for the privilege of living there, and then refused to follow through. They have lived there without paying rent to the Jewish owners for years and years and years, and this is against the law, as it is in every country in the world. The eviction hasn’t even happened, and there is still an appeal pending.

The land has been Jewish-owned since before 1948. No one wants to “grab it” or occupy it. They want the effing tenants to pay the rent.

Q. Considering Israel’s strong defense system, the rockets launched cause very little damage. Aren’t these attacks a waste of resources? In business it’s called a “loss making venture.” Damage caused is not as desired. Why do they still continue to do this?

A. If you call the loss of ten lives, including a 6-year-old boy “very little damage,” then you have checked your morals at the door.

Q. In its latest large attack, the Israeli military leveled a building that housed many media outlets including The Associated Press. What reasons might Israel have for doing this?

A. Hamas terrorists were embedded in this building with the AP’s consent. Thus you have a case of the media establishment wearing its antisemitism on its sleeves by colluding with terrorists who have the sole goal of killing Jewish civilians. Oh, and by the way, the Israeli military gave the AP and others in the building a full hour’s warning to evacuate. All the staff had sufficient time to leave and were unscathed. Can you think of any other nation that gives warning before bombing terrorists who are shooting rockets at and killing its citizens? The better question is: why must Israel alone warn terror targets before taking them out?

Q. All the countries surrounding Israel are populated by Arabs. How can anyone thus make the claim that Palestinian Arabs never existed?

A. Israelis certainly know that the Arabs of Judea, Samaria, and Gaza exist. But these have no nationality, because no existing Arab country has absorbed them and they can’t be “Palestinian” if “Palestine” doesn’t exist. And if “Palestine” exists, there would already be two states, in which case, why would anyone still be speaking of a “two-state solution?” And if there is a “Palestine” and two states, why has that not solved the problem of Arab terror against Jewish Israeli citizens?

Q. What are some good ideas to stop Hamas from firing rockets, yet not blow up any buildings in the process?

A. How about this? America, the EU, the UN, and other Hamas allies can stop funding the terror machine. That will stop the rockets quickly enough, and without any need for blowing up buildings.

Q. When will the time come to end the Palestine and Israel war? What are the solutions to end war?

A. Every time this question is asked, one must marvel at the chutzpah of anyone suggesting that there must be a two-state solution. It seems obvious that if “Palestine” existed, there would already be two states (or more if you count Jordan, for instance). As such, either the existence of two states is not a solution, or there is no such thing as “Palestine.” Because surely Israel exists, which is the entire reason for the war. Israel exists and the Arabs don’t want her to.

Q. Why can't Palestinians in the West Bank relocate to other Arab states and let Israel enjoy peace in its traditional biblical land? I see that Bethlehem, Jericho and other biblical sites like Hebron are located in the West Bank?*

A. That’s what should happen, just as the expulsion of Jews in Arab countries led to their absorption by the Jewish State. But the Arab nations don’t want to absorb the Arabs of Judea and Samaria. They’d rather keep them as pawns. They want these fellow Arabs to retain their refugee status in order to force Israel to negotiate. The negotiations are for the purpose of chipping away at the territory that is the Jewish State of Israel, bit by bit, until such time as the entirety of the Jewish State ceases to exist and comes under Islamic domain as part of the wider Islamic Caliphate. This won’t happen. Israel is here to stay, as the bible also foretells.

*This last is to be cherished: the rare question from an actual truth seeker wanting information, clarification, and understanding. 

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Explaining Israel to a 10-Year-Old (Judean Rose)

It can be difficult to explain Israel’s right to exist to the online haters and debaters. After all, not all of us are Eugene Kontorovich. And since we’re not, how can anyone expect us to have all the complicated legalese at the ready to plead the legal twists and turns of Israel’s case? It’s better, instead, to keep things as simple as possible: We were here first. It’s ours.

But that’s not always as easy as it sounds. Take Quora, where I’ve been answering questions about Israel since 2011. I try to keep my answers uncomplicated so they will be easy to remember in future debates.

Quora, however, has a policy called “Be Nice, Be Respectful.” Violate this policy and Quora will collapse your answer. At this point, the moderators generally give you the option of editing your answer and allow an appeal. For me, that’s good enough, since I can usually find a workaround and rephrase.

An edit may mean changing “Palestine doesn’t exist” to “At this point in time, there is no state called "Palestine.” Which is a lot more complicated, but satisfies everyone, all around. You get to the point where you can spot what language is likely to trigger a report, so you can avoid such language right out of the starting gate. And if there’s a hiccup and an answer is collapsed, I edit and resubmit, and there’s no further problem.

Note that the Israel-hating Quorans stand ready to pounce on any perceived policy violation by the Israel-loving Quorans. It’s a war out there on Quora. The hope is that by reporting us, the Israel haters will get us permanently banned from the site. Once that happens, our truthful answers about Israel will disappear.

I was a top writer in 2018, and the best Quora answers come up in Google queries. I therefore see it as kind of mission to keep my content diplomatic enough to suit Quora moderators so my responses will stay up there on the ‘net, offering a truthful account of what Ruth Wisse calls “The Arab War Against the Jews.”

This can be a delicate balancing act. Not everyone is capable of coloring inside the lines. That goes for either side of the fence.

Rima Najjar, for instance, was permanently banned on Quora for her (apparently) anti-Israel/antisemitic content. I never read her stuff so I’m only guessing. I’m not sure what, exactly, was objectionable. But according to her Jewish friend Benay Blend, Quora is biased in favor of pro-Israel voices like my own and in banning her, is discriminating against Najjar.

This supposed bias is the reason Najjar filed suit against Quora and it’s nonsense, as I explained a little over a year ago in this space (see: Blend and Najjar Implicate Me and the Israel Forever Foundation for Getting Banned on Quora). If Najjar was banned, it wasn’t because of a pro-Israel bias, but because she couldn’t figure out how to speak Quora-ese. She likely found it hard not to sound hateful when discussing the Jewish State. Thus, Najjar violated Quora’s Be Nice, Be Respectful, one too many times and was banned for life.

It would have been difficult for Najjar to prove bias, since Quora is an equal-opportunity hand-slapper, collapsing answers and banning users on either side of the Israel/Anti-Israel divide. Najjar must have realized this fact. Because the academic subsequently dropped her suit in March (h/t Elder of Ziyon).

As I said, there’s always a work-around on Quora and Najjar could have still been on Quora today, happily typing out her hate for Israel, as long as she couched things in neutral, inoffensive terms. But hiding the truth of what one really thinks is an art and it’s definitely not always easy. The other day, for example, I answered a question:

“Can you explain the Israel-Palestinw [sic] conflict to me like I'm 10 years old?”

“This will be fun,” I thought, rubbing my hands together with glee, before formulating an answer, which was this:

A long time ago, God gave the land of Israel to the Jews. It is a beautiful and special land, so everyone was jealous and they are still jealous now. Other people keep trying to take bits and pieces of the land, and when the Jews won’t let them, they attack the Jews in all sorts of cruel ways, for instance sending exploding balloons over the border so Jewish children will play with them and get hurt. Or they’ll explode a pizza shop at a time when it is likely to be full of Jewish kids on summer vacation, having fun.

Instead of seeing how wrong it is to steal Jewish land and hurt Jewish children, the world sides with the thieves, the people that keep trying to take Jewish land, the people hurting Jewish children. Why? Because the world is mad that the Jews don’t want to switch religions. They figure it makes their newer religions look phony and false and that hurts their feelings.

Also, Jews tend to be smart and successful, and even though there aren’t a lot of them, they tend to rise to the top no matter what they decide to do with their lives. This makes other people jealous of the Jews. Which is stupid. They should instead study the Jews and try to copy them.

Not long after I posted this response, I of course received a message that the moderators had collapsed my answer for violating the Be Nice, Be Respectful policy. I was invited to edit and appeal.

But for some reason, this time, I balked. I knew exactly what language needed changing to suit the moderators, but I just didn’t care. I had written the truth: this is what I would have said to a ten-year-old to explain things, to MY ten-year-old. To any ten-year-old.

I saw no reason to change my answer if that’s not the way I’d say it to a ten-year-old. Ten-year-olds don’t understand political correctness. It makes no sense to add a lot of language to obscure the truth and give it a neutral makeover. Such language would lengthen my answer and overly complicate things so that a child would come away more confused than before.

Which is why, after thinking it over for a couple of days, I opted to submit an appeal without editing my answer, as follows:

Dear Moderator, the question asks how I would explain things to a ten-year-old, not how I would couch things in a politically correct manner to satisfy the Quora moderators. This actually is what I would say to a ten-year-old. Using more neutral terms would render the explanation unintelligible or confusing to a young child. I say that as a parenting expert and a mother of 12.

Kids understand only the simplest language. As such, I would venture to suggest this was a trick question intended to trip up a pro-Israel Quoran, triggering by design, perceived violations of the Be Nice, Be Respectful policy. I believe this is the reason the question was edited after the fact: after I answered the question. This gives the question an entirely new meaning, so that my answer may seem mean-spirited in some lights, instead of merely honest.

Just as there are frivolous lawsuits, this was a frivolous report, to get me in trouble: collapsed or banned. I hope you will reconsider your decision in the interest of freedom of speech on Quora.
Thank you for your consideration.

Note that somewhere between when I answered the question and my response was collapsed, the original poster changed the question. It now says: “Can you explain the Israel-Palestine conflict to me (I'm 10 years old)?” The edit is meant to exaggerate the supposedly harmful effect of my response. We’re no longer discussing a thought experiment. Instead, my answer stands retroactively, as an actual response to a ten-year-old child.

Which is why I didn’t expect for a moment that I would win my appeal. I figured the moderator would determine that my answer is “hate speech” and collapse it for good. This has happened on occasion.

"So be it," I thought. 

What some Quora moderators call "hate speech" I call "the truth.”

And sometimes I’m just not willing to lie.

I had a surprise, however, when I looked at my inbox this morning. There was a new notification: Quora had uncollapsed my answer.

Rima Najjar would say the moderator's decision reflects the same pro-Israel bias that led to her permanent ban from the social media network--that in responding favorably to my appeal, the moderator sided with Israel. But I think the decision is a sign that sometimes reason prevails, at least on Quora. On Quora, it turns out that speaking to a moderator like an adult, allows me to explain Israel to a ten-year-old. 

This is a refreshing contrast to the prevailing ethos at social media giant Facebook, where "Death to Israel" fails to violate community standards. It's a whole 'nother ballgame from Twitter, where despots are deemed to be just rattling sabers when they call for the annihilation of Israel and the Jews.

Quora is different. At Quora I sometimes lose. But sometimes I win. In this round, I got to explain Israel to ten-year-olds. Which seems a good enough reason to stay in the game. 

For now.

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When the Truth is Treated as Hate Speech (Judean Rose)

On January 22, I answered this question on Quora:

Why do you think there is so much violence between, the Zionist settlers and Palestinian villagers in the West Bank? Can the Ask an Israeli/Ask A Palestinian project help quell some of that violence?

I responded as follows:

The question is by way of asserting an untruth: that there is some sort of mutuality to the Arab war against the Jews (see: The Arab War Against the Jews). Jews don’t attack Arabs. The opposite is true: Arabs attack Jews.

This fact has nothing to do with settlement, which has only to do with housing. There is nothing wrong with housing, by the way, unless you believe that Jews have no right to live in homes. Which would be an extremely racist position to hold.

This project you mention is total anti-Israel propaganda because of the question it asks, which, like the question you ask, asserts an untruth, and there is no balance to the assertion. The project cannot quell what does not exist.

Even the terms used in your question assert untruths and spread bigotry. The term “West Bank” for example, asserts that Jordan is the rightful owner of Judea and Samaria (their proper geographic labels), though only two UN member states (Britain and Pakistan) accepted Jordan’s occupation of these territories between 1948 and 1967 as a legal one. The use of the word “settlers” as if it were an epithet, when all these people are doing is living on land that was acquired during a defensive war, land that belonged to their people for thousands of years. Land that shares the name of these people (Jews/Judea).

Why use the word “Zionist” in tandem with the word “settler”? Because the question asserts the untruth that there is some sort of reciprocity to the violence, using the words “Zionist” and “settler” tells anyone who reads the question to equate “Zionist” and “settler” with gratuitous violence against Arabs. Of course, there is no truth to this, as Jews are not attacking Arabs. The opposite is true and has been so for thousands of years. Arabs attack Jews. Period. There is no equivalent violent action toward the Arabs by the Jews.

The term “Palestinian” is also a piece of propaganda, as there has never been a sovereign Arab state known as “Palestine.” The term is used only to delegitimize the State of Israel, the Jewish State and in reality has no meaning.

My answer received 15 upvotes and may have received many more, except for the fact that the moderators collapsed my answer, and requested an edit, suggesting that my response violated Quora’s “Be Nice, Be Respectful” (BNBR) rule. Here is an excerpt from the official Quora explanation of its BNBR policy: 

Do your best to see the world from the perspective of the person who posted the question (the original poster ["OP"]) or answer. It is often not helpful to criticize or challenge the fundamental beliefs of the OP (in an answer) or answerer (in a comment). For example, in responding to the question "Is it OK to only go to church on Easter?", the following answer would be considered disrespectful and is not allowed: "There is no God and religious rituals are a waste of time." Use good judgement and be empathetic. Answers and comments that challenge the fundamental beliefs of an OP or answerer will be held to a very high standard re: Be Nice, Be Respectful.

I knew what was bugging the Quora moderators here, I won’t pretend I didn’t. They didn’t want me speaking of “Jews” and “Arabs” but of “Zionist settlers” and “Palestinians villagers” as the OP did. They didn’t want me to challenge the assertions of the poster, but see things from his or her point of view.

Now sometimes I will edit my responses when challenged by Quora, because the whole reason I’m on this forum is to spread the truth. Why cut off my nose to spite my face? Would it have killed me to go politically correct?

Here, for instance, I might have changed the language to “Israeli Jews” and “Arab terrorists.” That might have mollified the moderators.

But this one really bugged me. The rebel in me was screaming: Since when is the truth not “nice” or “respectful?” I was only telling the truth: except for the rare exception, Jews are not attacking Arabs, but Arabs are attacking Jews. Not all of them, but a large percentage of them, and often.

It is what it is. What it isn’t, is bigotry. I used Professor Ruth Wisse’s excellent presentation, The Arab War Against the Jews, to back my assertion. I did not say that “all Arabs” attack Jews.

I believed, strongly (still do), that my answer was both fair and factual. And the curmudgeon in me was refusing to bend to an anonymous moderator’s will. To me, “Palestinian” is a propaganda term (see: Israel is Engaged in a War of Words) and it goes against my personal ethos to use the word.

So there I was, confronted with a choice of editing my answer, or appealing the moderator’s ruling. I decided to appeal, offering to edit whatever it was that was dishonest or offensive. I wrote:

My answer was factual. I see nothing in my answer that abrogates the Be Nice, Be Respectful rule. I was careful.

I would edit my answer to suit your guidelines, but see nothing to edit. If the moderators disagree, perhaps they could point to something specific in my answer that was rude or disrespectful so that I might make edits, as requested. Otherwise, I think my answer should be reinstated.

I really hoped to receive a reasonable response, explaining how I might edit my response. I must confess to feeling shocked at the ruling I instead received:

Hello Varda,

Your content was in violation of our Be Nice, Be Respectful policy. This core Quora principle requires that people treat other people on the site with civility, respect, and consideration. To learn more about this policy, please visit: https://www.quora.com/What-is-Quoras-Be-Nice-Be-Respectful-policy.

More specifically, your content contained what we consider to be hate speech:

Users are not allowed to post content or adopt a tone that would be interpreted by a reasonable observer as a form of hate speech, particularly toward a race, gender, religion, nationality, ethnicity, political group, sexual orientation or another similar characteristic. Questions and question details about generalizations in these topics should be phrased as neutrally and respectfully as possible.

Our decision is final, and your content will not be reinstated.

If you see content that is objectionable, we suggest you either report or downvote it. You can report questions, answers, comments, and messages by clicking on the "Report" link which is located underneath the content.

We appreciate your understanding. 

Sincerely,

Amelia
User Operations
Quora

At this point, I was upset. Hate speech?? But okay, I was willing to try to edit my response. I didn’t want anyone to think I was spreading hate. The option to edit, however, had disappeared with the moderator’s ruling. I could no longer edit my answer, which remains collapsed to this day.

One bright note in this uncomfortable episode, a comment left by Brenda Newman:

“This is what gets collapsed these days? Answer may need improvement? I thought it one of your best. Apparently, decoding the language used in the propaganda war isn’t allowed.”

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