Dear em Prof Frank Roels,

Israel is asking Facebook to add the word “Zionist” to its hate speech policy. Facebook is now reviewing this proposal.

If Facebook restricts the use of “Zionist” on its platforms, Palestinians will be blocked from describing our daily lives under Israeli apartheid, as well as our families’ histories of dispossession and military occupation.

We’re working with an international coalition including Jewish Voice for Peace, 7amleh, MPower Change, Independent Jewish Voices, American Muslims for Palestine, Palestine Legal and many more to advocate with Facebook against making this policy change.

Help us by signing our petition telling Facebook we need to be able to discuss Zionism

Social media companies should allow people to hold governments accountable, not shield governments from accountability.

Restricting criticism of Israel is a misguided response to a real and important problem of antisemitism. In falsely equating all Jewish people with the state of Israel, Facebook will only play into dangerous stereotypes.

Zionism claims that all people worldwide who identify themselves as Jewish belong to a “Jewish nation”, although these people are citizens of many countries, and that this “nation” has an inherent right to a supremacist “Jewish state” in Palestine, forcibly displacing the Indigenous Palestinian population and denying our basic rights.

If Facebook restricts the use of the word “Zionist”, we will not be able to tell the story of the Nakba -- the pre-meditated and violently executed ethnic cleansing of a majority of the Indigenous Palestinians from our homeland in 1948, at the hands of Zionist militias, to make room for an exclusionary, settler-colonial state.

Support Palestinians in telling our story by spreading the petition to Facebook
Support Palestinians in telling our story by spreading the petition to Facebook

The Zionist settler colonial project continues to this day, through “incremental genocide” of two million in the Gaza ghetto; the ceaseless theft of our lands and forcible displacement of our communities; the endless colonial settlements; and the overarching apartheid system.

Social media platforms are powerful tools to help us share our stories, fight against all forms of racism and discrimination, and fight for our freedom.

Make sure to sign our petition to Facebook so we can continue our struggle for justice


In solidarity,

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)


DONATE