The Oversight Board for Facebook's parent company, Meta, has ruled that the slogan "From the river to the sea Palestine will be free" does not violate the company's hate speech laws.
The board's decision comes after it reviewed appeals against three cases involving different pieces of Facebook content containing the phrase that were reported but not removed.
The Oversight Committee explained that there was "no indication that the comment or the two posts broke Meta’s Hate Speech rules because 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. Instead, the three pieces of content contain contextual signals of solidarity with Palestinians, in the hashtags, visual representation or statements of support. On other policies, they do not break the Violence and Incitement rules nor do they violate Meta’s Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy as they do not contain threats of violence or other physical harm, nor do they glorify Hamas or its actions."
The board also claimed that the slogan 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 Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) slammed the Meta Oversight Board decision.
"'From the River to the Sea’ is a slogan created with the sole vision of destroying the national homeland of the Jewish people,” said CEO of CAM Sacha Roytman Dratwa. “It is genocidal in intent and meaning, and is not a legitimate political or ideological vision, because it targets the one Jewish State and its inhabitants for destruction.
“The Meta Oversight Board appears to have special rules for Jews and the Jewish State because they seem to always come down on the side of anti-Semites and give them a benefit of the doubt that they would dare not give any other racist or hate group. They have given a green light for incitement to genocide,” Roytman Dratwa added.
In May, CAM sent the Oversight Board a ‘White Paper’ about why the slogan “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free” is a violent call to genocide that should be banned from the social media platform.
“It shows a conscious bias that some on the Meta Oversight Board use twisted logic and verbal contortions to protect anti-Semites,” continued Roytman Dratwa. “We sent them the history and context of the phrase and how it was invented and used solely as a call for genocide by those who have openly and proudly called for the murder of Jews everywhere.”
“There is no amount of context or twisted logic that can excuse this outrage.”