Palestinian rights groups ‘suspend engagement’ with UN torture expert
Several Palestinian human rights organisations have announced the suspension of “all engagement” with the UN special rapporteur on torture “due to her lack of action, responsiveness, and impartiality” in addressing Israel’s systemic violations against Palestinians.
“We cannot continue to engage in a process that fails to center the lived realities of Palestinians and to actively challenge impunity for perpetrators,” more than a dozen organisations wrote in an open letter to the rapporteur, Alice Edwards.
“Our suspension of engagement will remain in effect until there is a change in leadership or a demonstrable shift in your approach to one that is fair, impartial, and genuinely responsive to the evidence and realities on the ground.”
Among other things, the group criticised the rapporteur’s decision to focus her upcoming report to the UN Human Rights Council on “hostage-taking as a form of torture”, which they condemned as “yet another example of a troubling pattern that suggests you perceive Palestinians as less worthy victims”, they wrote.
They argued that the rapporteur has contributed “to the dehumanisation of Palestinians”.
Meta ‘silencing Palestinian content and suppressing the Palestinian narrative’: Report
A new report has revealed that Meta enforces unjust policies against Palestinian content, deleting posts or restricting visibility under claims of policy violations, while turning a blind eye to hate speech and incitement against Palestinians.
The report published by 7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media – includes testimonies from Palestinian influencers, journalists and media outlets who have faced Meta’s discriminatory practices.
It exposes Meta’s “silencing Palestinian content and suppressing the Palestinian narrative, particularly during the ongoing genocide in Gaza”, the report’s authors say.
More than 15 million inciting posts in Hebrew against Palestinians were documented across social media platforms since October 2023, as recorded by 7amleh’s AI-powered language model.
“The continued discriminatory practices by Meta against Palestinian content constitute a clear violation of international standards for freedom of expression,” 7amleh’s advocacy manager Jalal Abukhater said. “We call on Meta to take serious and urgent steps to reform its policies and ensure Palestinians’ right to use digital platforms without suppression or discrimination.”
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