Twitter suspends prominent Palestinian Rights activist
Twitter Suspends Prominent Activist for Palestinian Rights, No Explanation Given
On February 24, 2021, Twitter suspended the account of CODEPINK co-executive director Ariel Gold, a prominent activist for Palestinian rights. The suspension follows online targeting of Ms. Gold by supporters of Israel and Twitter flagging a number of tweets by Ms. Gold and CODEPINK.
Between January 30th and February 4, Twitter began flagging tweets by Ms. Gold (@ArielElyseGold) and CODEPINK (@codepink) for violating their rules. These “violations” included such things as Ms. Gold responding with horror to an antisemitic attack against a member of her synagogue, CODEPINK advertising a webinar regarding U.S.-Russia relations, CODEPINK mourning the extrajudicial execution of a Palestinian man, and a number of innocuous tweets .
Ms. Gold has filed numerous appeals asking Twitter why her account was suspended but she has not received any replies from Twitter.
“I’m proud to work for Palestinian rights, diplomacy with Iran, freedom for Saudi women, and against all wars and all forms of racism,” said Ms. Gold. “While I hope Twitter reinstates my account, no social media suspension will stop me from working to end Israeli apartheid, the war in Yemen, and more.
Ms. Gold has long been targeted on Twitter and through other forms of communication with hate speech or threats of violence for her criticism of Israel. On September 6, 2020, she received a death threat on Twitter which she reported to Twitter and the FBI. The FBI followed up on it, determining that the man lived in Isreal. Twitter has continued to allow the man to maintain his account on their platform.
In addition to the targeting of Ms. Gold and CODEPINK’s accounts, on February 23, 373 Twitter accounts associated with Armenia, Russia, Iran were being suspended. According to Twitter, a number of these account suspensions were for “undermining faith in the NATO alliance and its stability.”
On Sunday, February 28, CODEPINK launched a petition calling on Twitter to reinstate Ms. Gold’s account and stop targeting activists for Palestinian rights and demilitarization. The petition has already received thousands of signatures and will be hand-delivered to Twitter’s office.
CODEPINK is a women-led grassroots organization working to end U.S. wars and militarism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect our tax dollars into healthcare, education, green jobs, and other life-affirming programs.
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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