Anti-Semitism watchdog group condemns Mehta’s move to lift ban on ‘shaheed’

Mehta is now removing all posts that use Shahid in connection with people on its list of “dangerous organizations and individuals,” including members of Islamist terrorist organizations.

Meta owns and operates Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp.

“The word shaheed is a term of honor for a murderer. The recommendations by Mehta’s oversight committee could be seen as giving a green light to the glorification of murder,” said CAM CEO Sacha Roitman.・Mr. Doratova said.

“The term is used to honor those who have killed, injured, and terrorized people around the world, from Osama bin Laden to the Hamas perpetrators of the October 7 massacre, and Allowing its use would send completely the wrong signal.

“Over the past few years, it has become clear that social media platforms have been used as recruitment centers for terrorist organizations, and social media companies should seek to thwart this process, not aid it.”Roitman Dratova he added.

Last year, Khalid Mansour, one of the 23 members of the monitoring committee, told Al Jazeera that Mehta’s shahid policy impedes Palestinians’ freedom of expression.

Mansour, who is from Egypt, has a history of anti-Israel statements. In November 2022, he wrote “Damn Zionists.” In 2019, he tweeted that “Israel is exporting oppression to the world.”

Mansour also shared posts by Al-Haq, an Israeli-designated terrorist organization and a proxy for the PFLP, as well as an article from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) opposing the actual definition of anti-Semitism.

Anti-Israel groups have long argued that Meta unfairly suppresses Palestinian content under campaigns such as “Meta, let the Palestinians speak” and “Facebook Stop Censoring Palestine.” The main organizer is the terrorism-linked group 7amleh, which hosts the monitoring committee and has been featured in the monitoring committee’s events alongside Mansour.