RELEASE: 16 Bipartisan Members Condemn Meta’s Oversight Board’s Decision that “From the River to the Sea” is not Hate Speech.

WASHINGTON, DC — Today, Wednesday, September 25, 2024, U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer helped lead a bipartisan letter signed by sixteen Members of Congress to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg condemning the Oversight Board’s ruling that the antisemitic and anti-Israel rallying call “from the river to the sea” is not considered hate speech. 

The signatory list of sixteen bipartisan Members of Congress includes Reps. Gottheimer (NJ-5), D’Esposito (NY-4), Bacon (NE-2), Costa (CA-21), Davis (NC-1), Fitzpatrick (PA-1), Kean (NJ-7), Landsman (OH-1), Lawler (NY-17), Lee (NV-3), Slotkin (MI-7), Stevens (MI-11), Suozzi (NY-3), Titus (NV-1), Torres (NY-15), and Wilson (SC-2). The letter is also supported by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

“We write to you today to express outrage with the Oversight Board’s decision that the phrase ‘from the river to the sea’ does not violate Meta’s rules on hate speech, violence and incitement, or dangerous organizations and individuals. Earlier this year, Congress voted in a resounding bipartisan fashion to condemn the use of this phrase and deemed it antisemitic. This phrase is clearly a call for the destruction of the State of Israel and serves as an antisemitic charge, denying the Jewish people the right to self-determination, including through the forced removal of Jews from their ancestral homeland. We strongly urge Meta to reject this guidance for its platforms and take the proactive step to deem this phrase hate speech,” wrote sixteen bipartisan Members of Congress in a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. 

The sixteen members continued, “Even before the events of October 7, 2023, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other Iranian-backed terrorist organizations have used this slogan as a rallying cry to destroy Israel and exterminate the Jewish people. Hamas’ 2017 revised charter states that, “Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.” The phrase has also been used as a rallying cry by the likes of former President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi, former leader of Al-Qaeda Osama Bin Laden, and former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein to reference their goal of wiping out the State of Israel and destroying the Jewish people. Since Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack against Israel, the phrase has been weaponized in protests across the world, especially on university and college campuses to intimidate Jewish students and praise Hamas’ actions.”

“Meta’s failure to act on this phrase is another example of social media companies taking one step forward, and two steps back. ‘From the river to the sea’ is not a political statement – it is an open call for the complete eradication of the Jewish state,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “Earlier this year, we welcomed Meta’s decision to expand its hate speech policy on using the term ‘Zionist’ as a derogatory way to describe Jews or Israelis. However, in this case, Meta’s Oversight Board erred in deeming this call for the destruction of the Jewish state as an acceptable form of speech on their platforms, and we praise Reps. Gottheimer and D’Esposito for leading this bipartisan stand against online antisemitic hate speech.”

Full text of the letter sent to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg can be found here and below:

Mr. Mark Zuckerberg Chief Executive Officer Meta

1 Hacker Way

Menlo Park, CA 94025

Dear Mr. Zuckerberg:

We write to you today to express outrage with the Oversight Board’s decision that the phrase “from the river to the sea” does not violate Meta’s rules on hate speech, violence and incitement, or dangerous organizations and individuals. Earlier this year, Congress voted in a resounding bipartisan fashion to condemn the use of this phrase and deemed it antisemitic. This phrase is clearly a call for the destruction of the State of Israel and serves as an antisemitic charge, denying the Jewish people the right to self-determination, including through the forced removal of Jews from their ancestral homeland. We strongly urge Meta to reject this guidance for its platforms and take the proactive step to deem this phrase hate speech.

Even before the events of October 7, 2023, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other Iranian-backed terrorist organizations have used this slogan as a rallying cry to destroy Israel and exterminate the Jewish people. Hamas’ 2017 revised charter states that, “Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.” The phrase has also been used as a rallying cry by the likes of former President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi, former leader of Al-Qaeda Osama Bin Laden, and former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein to reference their goal of wiping out the State of Israel and destroying the Jewish people. Since Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack against Israel, the phrase has been weaponized in protests across the world, especially on university and college campuses to intimidate Jewish students and praise Hamas’ actions.

Following the horrific terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas, antisemitism has surged online and off. In the ADL’s (Anti-Defamation League) Online Hate and Harassment: The American Experience 2024 report, they found that harassment targeting Jews because of their religion surged to 34% compared to 18% for non-Jews, and 41% of respondents changed their onlinebehavior to avoid being identified as Jewish out of fear of the hate & harassment they may experience.

Online hate begets real life violence. As we have seen time and time again, with the TOPS Buffalo shooting in 2022, the Christchurch Mosque shootings in 2019, or the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in 2018, individuals can be radicalized by extremism online causing them to commit violence in communities across the globe. Perhaps the most disturbing trend is the increasingly early age that individuals are being radicalized on social media, before they have the knowledge or context to form informed opinions about complex subjects. 

We urge the Meta and the Oversight Board to reassess this decision and take swift action to ensure this phrase is not used on its platform to further antisemitic hate online. We also call on Meta to provide further information on the steps it is taking proactively to ensure all users feel safe from hate and harassment while utilizing Meta’s products. We look forward to your response no later than October 10, 2024, detailing those actions.

Sincerely,

SIGNED MEMBERS OF CONGRESS