7amleh – The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media

Activities

• With its consultative status at the United Nations Economic and Social Affairs Council (ECOSOC), 7amleh has submitted several statements to the Human Rights Council, accusing Israel of limiting “free speech” and “Palestinian solidarity” by legislating and implementing online anti-incitement laws and coordinating anti-incitement enforcement with social media platforms.
• Since 2016, 7amleh has campaigned against Facebook’s, Twitter’s, and Instagram’s supposed policies to take down posts featuring incitement to violence, support for terror, and antisemitism, arguing that these social media platforms “all too often lead to the silencing and erasure of critical voices,” “censor[ing] Palestinian voices,” and attacking “free speech.”
  • In 2022, following the release of Business for Social Responsibility’s (BSR) September 2022 report “Human Rights Due Diligence of Meta’s Impacts in Israel and Palestine in May 2021,” 7amleh initiated the campaign “Meta, let Palestine speak,” accusing Meta of “double standards” and “over-enforcement” of Palestinian content.
  • In January 2021, 7amleh launched a campaign titled “Facebook, we need to talk” aimed at preventing Facebook from “restricting use of the word Zionist.” The campaign also aimed at preventing the implementation of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, stating that it “shield[s] the Israeli government from accountability.”
    • The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, adopted by nearly 30 countries and counting, represents the international consensus definition of antisemitism, as well as how to distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitism. An example of the latter includes denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
  • In October 2018. 7amleh published a report titled “Facebook and Palestinians: Biased of Neutral Content Moderation Policies?” criticizing Facebook’s removal of an anti-Israel post and cartoon published by the Palestinian Information Centre. The post stated “Shh! Do not interrupt Israel while they are slaughtering innocent Palestinians.” The accompanying cartoon included text that read, “Shhhhhhhhhh!!! Denouncing Israel’s war crime is anti-semitism” and exhibited a Palestinian mother and her dead child silenced by the Israeli flag.
• In May 2021, 7amleh criticized Zoom’s cancellation of an online event in which San Francisco State University planned to host terrorist Leila Khaled, stating that, “It was revealed that the platform [Zoom] discriminates against Palestinian men and women.” 7amleh referred to Khaled as “a well known Palestinian political figure,” ignoring her terrorist affiliation.
  • Leila Khaled is a “prominent member” of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and a terrorist responsible for hijacking multiple airplanes. 
• On September 2, 2020, 7amleh lauded PFLP senior member Ghassan Kanafani and Sabri Khalil Al-Banna as “distinguished Palestinian personalities” and criticized Google for describing their birth place as the state of Israel and not the state of Palestine.
  • Sabri Khalil Al-Banna, also known as Abu Nidal, was a leader of the militant group Abu Nidal Organization (Black September). The group carried out terrorist attacks in multiple countries, killing and injuring almost 900 people.²
• In June 2019, 7amleh’s Monitoring and Documentation officer Ahmad Qadi encouraged BDS campaigns stating, “The boycott movement, BDS, is the only hope for the Palestinian people in the face of the Zionist colonialism.”
• On June 11, 2017, 7amleh shared on Facebook an article titled “Why We Should Boycott Gay Pride in Tel Aviv” and wrote “Palestinian LGBTQI activists and  BDS movement are calling for a boycott of Tel Aviv Pride… recognizing them as a manifestation of Israeli pinkwashing to obscure and normalize Israeli crimes and violations of human rights #thisisoccupation #endtheoccupation.”
• In November 2015, 7amleh announced a new music video against recruitment to the Israeli army, with the following lyrics: “They stripped us of our land, they stripped us of our identity. They dressed us with boots and military uniform. He went to the army that went into his house and displaced his family – Killed some, expelled some, and divided the survivors…Ignorance was planted and fertilised with the shitty sectarianism….From bad to worse, I have a dream to end the Jewish state’s regime…”
• In August 2015, 7amleh shared an invitation to a protest supporting “the hero Mohammed Allan.” The protest was “In support of the prisoner Mohammed Allah, the hunger striker…and to defend all our brave men and women prisoners in the occupation’s prisons. We call all to participate in the unified Haifa protest.”
  • Muhammad Allan is a PIJ member who was held in administrative detention in 2014-2015. The Israeli Security Agency (ISA) stated that intelligence they gathered indicated that Allan “still present[ed] a danger to public order and the security of the West Bank.”

Partnership with NGOs Tied to Terror

• 7amleh is the founding member of The Palestinian Digital Rights Coalition, which aims to “strengthen the coordination, cooperation and mutual aid between Palestinian civil society institutions operating in the field of protecting and strengthening Palestinian digital rights.” The coalition includes Al-Haq, Amnesty International, Addameer, Al Mezan, Adalah, Hurryyat, Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy, and Sada Social.
• In October 2021, 7amleh published a press release condemning the decision by the Israeli Ministry to designate six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. According to the press release, the designations are “a crime against civil society work and a clear breach of human…[7amleh] stands with the abovementioned 6 Palestinian organizations, and affirms its recruitment for work and taking any steps necessary…in order to revoke this unjust decision.”
• In a July 2, 2020 report, 7amleh attempted to legitimize Palestinian terror groups as “political” groups: “US law includes restrictions on working with organizations or individuals on the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, which include many Palestinian political organizations and parties…the US State Department’s designations are controversial as there is no internationally recognized legal definition of terrorism.” (emphasis added)
• In 2020, 7amleh launched a campaign with Al-Haq, Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P), and Addameer to “pressure Google regarding its mapping practices against Palestine and Palestinians…” (emphasis in original).
  • On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense declared Al-Haq, DCI-P, and Addameer as “terror organizations” because they are part of “a network of organizations” that operates “on behalf of the ‘Popular Front’.”
• In October 2018, 7amleh launched a campaign titled “Plant a Seed in Area C” in cooperation with the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC).
  • The Union of Agricultural Work Committee (UAWC) is identified by Fatah as an official “affiliate” and by USAID-engaged audit as the “agricultural arm” of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. For more information on UAWC’s PFLP ties, read NGO Monitor’s report “Union of Agricultural Work Committees Ties to the PFLP Terror Group.”
  • On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense declared UAWC a “terror organization” because it is part of “a network of organizations” that operates “on behalf of the ‘Popular Front’.”

Staff

• Neveen Abu Rahmoun
  • Neveen Abu Rahmoun, a member of 7amleh’s board of directors, previously served as a Member of Knesset representing the Balad party.
  • On October 25, 2022, following the death of PFLP member and Lions’ Den terrorist Tamer Kilani, Abu Rahmoun wrote, “In effect, Israel, as usual, is utilizing its election campaigns to resolve its battle on the expanse of the blood of our martyrs… [then Defense Minister Benny] Gantz, who is a graduate of the elite units that are especially bloody, decided to assassinate Kilani in order to increase his popularity among Israelis and he continues to this day to damage our people’s sovereignty and steadfastness for internal gains…Since the Nakba they [Israelis] have been killing us so they might kill this spirit within us…May the men and women martyrs of Palestine have mercy. Freedom for our men and women prisoners.”
  • On March 11, 2022, Abu Rahmoun shared a picture of Jalal Barhum following his death, and echoed an official PFLP statement, “We console ourselves, console the family and loved ones on the loss of the fighter friend Jalal Barhum (Abu Darar), who spent 10 years of his life as a political prisoner in the occupation’s prisons. He was for us a compass in national and political activity…We are going to miss a patriotic and humane commander who tirelessly worked for Palestine. May he have mercy, and may the family and all who knew him have solace and may they continue in his combative way.” (emphases added)
    • The PFLP referred to Barhum as its “ comrade commander,” “the great patriot,” who “spent more than 11 years as a result of his patriotic combative activity and was a compass in national and political activity. We are going to miss a patriotic and humane commander who tirelessly worked for Palestine.”
  • On July 12, 2021, Abu Rahmoun shared a picture of Khalida Jarrar calling for her release and referring to her as “The commander fighter…revolutionary leader…who was imprisoned over her national political activity.”
    • Khalida Jarrar served as vice-chairperson of the PFLP-affiliated NGO Addameer, until 2017. Jarrar was arrested on October 31, 2019 on suspicions of “involvement in terror activity.” On December 18, 2019, it was revealed that Jarrar had “emerged as the head of the PFLP in the West Bank and responsible for all the organization’s activities” (emphasis added).
  • On March 6, 2017, Abu Rahmoun shared a poster featuring Basel Al-A’raj referring to him as “the martyr commando fighter…who rose to heaven during an armed confrontation with the occupation…” Abu Rahmoun wrote, “#Basel_Al-A’raj is an idea and an idea cannot end. Basel was the intellectual resistance fighter, he was arrested and harassed in the Oslo prisons…because he resisted the occupation culturally and ideologically, and the brave man was martyred [when resisting] militarily.”
    • Al-A’raj was arrested by the PA in April 2016 “for planning attacks against Israelis” and imprisoned for six months. According to Israeli officials, he “was allegedly part of a terrorist cell planning to carry out attacks on Israeli targets.” Al-Araj was killed in March 2017 when he opened fire at Israeli forces seeking to apprehend him.
  • On December 21, 2015, Abu Rahmoun shared a poster featuring Samir Kuntar, which reads, “The martyr, Jihad fighter, Samir Kuntar: ‘I have returned from Palestine only to return to Palestine.’”
    • On April 22, 1979, Samir Kuntar brutally murdered a family, among them a four-year-old girl and an Israeli police officer. After his release, Kuntar became a Hezbollah operative and was killed on December 19, 2015. The US Department of State designated Samir Kuntar as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.” 
• Ahmad Qadi
  • Ahmad Qadi, 7amleh’s “Monitoring and Documentation officer,” also serves as Databank Coordinator for Al-Haq.
  • On December 19, 2022, Qadi shared a poster featuring deceased terrorist Nasser Abu Hamid, and wrote, “Imprisoned several times and never gave up the resistance…at the end, he died in the occupation’s prisons because of medical negligence. The history of Nasser Abu Hamid, the legacy of his combating family and the magnitude of the sacrifices made by [his] the family can shake the mountains…”
    • Abu Hamid was one of the founders of Fatah’s military wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and was sentenced to seven life sentences for the murder of seven Israelis. Abu Hamid participated in the 2000 Ramallah Lynch, in which Palestinians killed and mutilated the bodies of two IDF reservists.
  • On November 29, 2022, Qadi shared a photo of Jawad and Thafer Rimawi’s father from their funeral and wrote, “Oh Allah, the suffering, the repression, you have lost two of your children at once. Two boys, as a flower and the age of a flower. This Israeli cancerous entity will be eliminated one day.”
    • Jawad and Thafer Rimawi were killed when they participated in violent clashes against IDF forces and “threw cinder blocks and Molotov cocktails” at IDF forces.
  • On January 4, 2015, Qadi shared pictures from the 2014 Jerusalem synagogue attack, in which Uday and Ghassan Abu Jamal murdered five Israelis. Qadi wrote, “I have been wishing for pictures like these for a while, and I still wonder – of what these men are made of?! #deeply_exciting.” Qadi also commented, “Heroes,” “Men of Palestine,” “Congratulations and mercy for all the resistance fighters and martyrs. Our loyalty is to whomever resists and to all who defend the honor of the Palestinian people and its nation…” “As [PFLP senior member Ghassan] Kanafani said, ‘the person is the cause and our cause is Palestine…’” 
• Marwa Hanna
  • Marwa Hanna serves as 7amleh’s Digital Capacity Building Manager.
  • On October 26, 2015, Hanna shared an article presenting a series of cartoons on the “knife intifada”, which feature antisemitic tropes and suggest that Israel invents the existence of knife attacks. One drawing exhibits an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man looking in fear upon a knife that an old man uses to eat dinner. Two others depict Israel soldiers afraid of a sharp belt and a man sharpening his knife.
• Reem Amer
  • Reem Amer, a member of 7amleh’s board of directors, was a member of 7amleh’s audit committee in 2016. Amer is also employed at Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung as a finance manager.
  • In a December 2014 interview to Kul Al-Arab, Reem commented about a conference organized by Coalition of Women for Peace, ”even though the conference discusses peaceful resistance, it does not cancel or replace other forms of resistance, but it discusses it [peaceful resistance] and discusses the extent of its efficiency and use in the struggle until the occupation’s end” (emphasis added).
• Ahmad Darawsha
  • Darawsha is a member of 7amleh’s board of directors.
  • On October 4, 2015, Darawsha shared photos of Fadi Alun who was killed after stabbing a 15-year-old boy. Darawsha wrote, “You are so beautiful alive above ground, and you are so beautiful alive underground. What shame is brought on us, whether alive or dead.”

2019-2021 Funding to 7amleh (amounts in NIS)

Amounts based on financial reports submitted to the Israeli Registrar of Non-Profits.