Episode 029: The Revolution Will Not Be Livestreamed

This week Lara and Michael discuss Instagram censoring our profile by announcing that as of October 25, 2021 we would no longer have access to the link button on @thepalestinepod account for purported violations of community guidelines. Lara queries what threshold Instagram is applying to make this decision to deprive users of critical features since @thepalestinepod account has only ever had one post removed from its account (which in any event did not violate Community Guidelines). Several other Palestinian content creators have received the alert that they too would lose access to the link button with the application providing no recourse to challenge this decision. This unfortunate move appears to be a coordinated effort to continue to crackdown on free speech on the platform especially as it concerns Palestinian human rights. This is all the more so since Instagram’s decision to deprive certain users of the link feature comes only a week after a Human Rights Watch report detailing censorship of posts and accounts by Instagram including with specific reference to posts unjustly removed from Lara’s account @gazangirl. Instead of heeding the call by Human Rights Watch to carry out an independent investigation into the censorship of Palestinian content, Instagram has doubled down by unjustly depriving Palestinian content creators of their right to link to further sources through their profiles. Lara and Michael also cover the recent meeting of the UN Security Council where the US envoy to the UN made some ludicrous statements condemning Hamas for allegedly holding two Israelis prisoners while nearly five thousand Palestinian men, women, and children languish inside Israeli political prisons. Lara provides an update on the Burnat brothers, and sadly Muhammad Burnat, the younger brother remains imprisoned by the Apartheid State without charge with a so-called court date that continues to be postponed. The Palestine Pod also discusses the pivotal role Colin Powell played in getting the United States on the course to invade Iraq, something the Israeli lobby took credit for. Michael covers an article in Jewish Currents that exposes American Jewish businessmen who are funding the Palestinian activist blacklist, Canary Mission.

To consult the sources used in the preparation of this episode, please see:

Videos:

1. Burnat brothers update (Lara's Instagram)

2. Palestine Pod Ep. 05 - Moving the Goalposts with Nora Barrows-Friedman

Articles:

1. Israel/Palestine: Facebook Censors Discussion of Rights Issues (Human Rights Watch)

2. Dr. Noura Erakat quotation: "We broke a dam" (Twitter)

3. US envoy bashes UNSC for disproportionate focus on Israel, raps settler violence (Times of Israel)

4. Mohammed El-Kurd on hunger strikes (Twitter)

5. @largejane Instagram

6. Letters to the Editor: Just how outrageous were Colin Powell’s Iraq lies to the U.N.? (LA Times)

7. Naftali Bennett on the death of Colin Powell (Twitter)

8. Philanthropist Michael Leven Donated to Canary Mission Blacklist (Jewish Currents)

9. Israel authorizes 3,000 additional entry permits for Gaza workers (Times of Israel)

10. Israel approves residency for 4,000 Palestinians, after 10-year freeze (Times of Israel)

11. Gaza’s Refugees Have Always Haunted Israel. Now They’re on the March. (Haaretz)

12. Recent Sephardic Converts Revive Jewish Life in Northern Brazil (Haaretz)