Strategic affairs minister asks Twitter to remove Khamenei from platform
‘Khamenei is using his Twitter account to promote hatred against the Jewish people and the State of Israel,’ wrote Orit Farkash-Hacohen
In her first effort as strategic affairs minister and member of the National Security Cabinet, MK Orit Farkash-Hacohen sent a letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey requesting that he immediately suspend the account of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
Last week, Khamenei used the popular microblogging platform to attack the Jewish state and people in a series of posts that included calls for violence.
“Khamenei is using his Twitter account to promote hatred against the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” the minister wrote in her letter.
“Some argue that the Zionist regime is a reality that the region must come to terms with,” Khamenei tweeted on May 22,
Iranian Quds Day. “Today the #Covid_19 is a reality; should it be accepted or fought?! The long-lasting virus of Zionism will be uprooted thanks to the determination and faith of the youth. #Covid1948.”
In another tweet, he called the “Zionist regime... a deadly cancerous growth” that should be “uprooted and destroyed.” He also said that, “The West Bank must be armed, just as
Gaza. The only thing that can reduce the Palestinians’ hardships is the hand of power. Otherwise, compromise won’t reduce a bit of the cruelty of this usurping, evil, wolf-like entity.”
Twitter’s policies stipulate that users “may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people” and that “you may not threaten or promote terrorism or violent extremism.”
Moreover, the company’s Hateful Conduct Policy stipulates that a user “may not promote violence against, or directly attack, or threaten other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin or religious affiliation... or calls for mass murder.”
Khamenei’s Quds Day statements were condemned by world leaders from US Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell, as well as UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov.
“Dangerous calls for the destruction of Israel should be condemned by all,” Mladenov said. “Such inciteful rhetoric is a modern form of antisemitism.”