7amleh, in cooperation with the Association for Progressive Communication (APC) submitted a written statement on the dramatic increase in digital rights violations of Palestinians to the 47th United Nations Human Rights Council.

June 14, 2021 - Ramallah, Palestine. 7amleh, in cooperation with the Association for Progressive Communication (APC) submitted a written statement on the dramatic increase in digital rights violations of Palestinians, in May 2021, to the 47th United Nations Human Rights Council, set to take place in Geneva, Switzerland. 

The statement highlights the dramatic increase in digital rights violations in May 2021, during the last Israeli aggression against Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territories and Israel, and the on-going ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem. Throughout May, 7amleh documented a total of 668 digital rights violations across different social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok. These violations included content takedowns, restriction of accounts, blocking pages and accounts, reduction in viewership of content and the banning of certain hashtags. 7amleh documented the majority of these violations in a report published in May entitled “The Attacks on Palestinian Digital Rights,” in which it also documented violations on other platforms such as Google Maps, Venmo and YouTube. 

Whereas Palestinian content during this time continued to be increasingly scrutinized, silenced, and Palestinian activists and human rights defenders continued to face increased systemic censorship, anti-Palestinian hate speech and calls for violence in Hebrew online increased unabatedly. 7amleh documented this in the report “The Index of Racism and Incitement,” which showed an increase of 15% in inciting and violent content against Palestinians between the 6th and 21st of May this year, compared with the same time period last year. 

Read the full statement here.