Photo from Wikimedia Commons. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) announced in a post on its website that it was successful in lobbying for Twitter and Instagram to remove a Palestinian terrorist from their respective platforms on April 27.
The terrorist, Ahlam Al-Tamimi, was convicted in connection with the 2001 Hamas bombing of the Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. The ADL described the bombing as “one of the most traumatic terror incidents in Israeli history. Tamimi reportedly selected the location for the bombing because she knew the pizzeria would be filled with children. The attack killed 15 people in total, including seven children and two American citizens.”
The Americans killed were Malki Roth, 15, and Shoshana Yehudit Greenbaum, 31. Greenbaum was five months pregnant when the bombing occurred. Al-Tamimi has openly gloated about organizing and participating in the bombing.
The ADL noted that it first flagged Al-Tamimi’s accounts on April 23. It also pointed out that this was the eighth time that Al-Tamimi has created social media accounts to spread propaganda.
“[The] ADL remains concerned that influential terrorists like Tamimi can exploit the services of major technology companies to spread hatred and terrorist propaganda,” it wrote. “While many are hurt from these messages, the most immediate impact is the re-traumatization of her victims’ families.”
Additionally, the ADL pointed out that Twitter asserts that it removes 87% of all terrorist activity on its site without needing civilians to flag it, but the social media giant admits that “claims of this sort are often not externally vetted, and, even at 87% accuracy, thousands of the worst propagators of hate are left to spew terror on the platform. The Tamimi case highlights one of the consistent failings of the big platforms’ current approach.”
The ADL concluded its post calling for tech companies to conduct better oversight of their platforms to ensure that terrorists aren’t able to spread propaganda.
“Social media companies owe it to the victims of terrorism to build a more sustainable solution to addressing terrorist content — which violates their own terms of service,” it wrote. “The current state of whack-a-mole to enforce their terms when infamous terrorists are exploiting their services is not good enough. It’s causing continued harm to grieving families.”
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted, “I am proud that our team at @ADL was able to help get a known #antisemitic terrorist off of social media. But if social media companies don’t take more decisive action, this will not be the last time we find this propagator of #hate online.”
I am proud that our team at @ADL was able to help get a known #antisemitic terrorist off of social media. But if social media companies don't take more decisive action, this will not be the last time we find this propagator of #hate online. Read more: https://t.co/TTdnxHp06r
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) April 29, 2020
A Twitter spokesperson told the Journal that violent extremism and terrorist organizations have no place on Twitter and that Twitter’s transparency report from May shows that the organization is getting better weeding out terrorist accounts on the platform
Al-Tamimi reportedly chose the Sbarro pizzeria as the target because she knew that it was a popular spot. She dropped off the suicide bomber, Izz-al-Din Shuheil al Masri, at the pizzeria; Al-Tamimi subsequently left the pizzeria before the bomb was detonated and reported on the bombing on Palestinian television afterward. In 2003, Al-Tamimi pled guilty in an Israeli court to her role in the bombing and received a life sentence.
However, in 2011 she was released as part of a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas; Al-Tamimi currently resides in Jordan, where she is a journalist. The U.S. issued a warrant for her arrest in 2013 and she is currently on the FBI’s most wanted list. Jordan has refused to extradite Al-Tamimi to the U.S., arguing that the two countries need a treaty in place in order for that to happen.
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