As of Saturday morning, multiple high profile Israeli and Zionist Instagram accounts have been disabled, including Duvdevan Israel, Duvdevan US, Betar US and Betar International.
No reason was given and no contact information for an appeal or explanation was provided.
Duvdevan is an elite undercover unit of the IDF, the inspiration for the Netflix show Fauda. Both the American and Israeli Instagram accounts have been disabled.
Betar is the 100 year old movement of Zeev Jabotinsky. Active in 20 cities worldwide, its activists recently confronted antisemite Ilhan Omar in Congress, and have repeatedly presented mock beepers to Jew haters throughout the US. The head of Betar Milwaukee is currently facing 3 years in jail for destroying a Nazi mural.
Internationally, Betar activists have been present in Amsterdam and France standing to protect the community and advocate for Zionism.
“For Meta to disable Zionist accounts in the midst of a war against the Jewish people is antisemetic. SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) and many others openly call for Intifada and to Free Palestine and Zionists can’t show our soldiers or heros without being disabled from major platforms," said Daniel Levy, a spokesman for Betar.
"There is a sick double standard which exists where Hamas supporters use Instagram to push attacks on Jews In the streets, SJP and other pro Hamas organizations push messaging of illegal terror organizations and Jews are banned."
"We are also very concerned in Europe about people being arrested for saying Palestinian flags don’t belong in the streets, and a London arrest for a Jew calling a radical leftist a kapo."
"Jews and Israel are the victims in this war, and we have the right to speak up."
"This is simply two tier policing online. One set of rules for Jews and another for everyone else. They also mass complain and have the ability to register many more complaints than Zionists do."
"Every single Zionist account on Instagram sees censorship and shadow banning. Yosef Haddad was banned this week, Eylon Levy was banned at start of the war, and sadly now permanent bans for these vital organizations."
Arutz Sheva-Israel National News's English-language Facebook page was suspended recently as well following a series of reports against the page's posts.
"In Pittsburgh, the FBI is investigating multiple attacks upon Jews. Jews have repeatedly been attacked and beaten, yet SJP at U Pitt has mass complained about Betar. Pitt, where Jews are beaten and there aren’t arrests questioned a Betar leader regarding beepers."
"Ilhan Omar and SJP Pitt say it’s islamaphobia and threats for standing up and speaking our minds legally. It’s bewildering and terrifying that Meta can simply eliminate Jewish voices,” added Levy.
Ross Glick, Director of Betar US said, “Betar has stood up worldwide for Jewish rights in recent months and our accounts have quickly reached 25k followers as we have empowered Jews. Without social media it’s very hard to spread our message and reach people."
"We have repeatedly used the language “Jews fight back” and been condemned for it despite the fact that all we do is legal. Meanwhile, we have seen Betar condemned by NYU, U Wisconsin, U Pitt and others for offering to hand to terrorist supporters beepers. We buy beepers on Amazon and hand them out to those who threaten Jews and praise Hamas and Hezbollah. Beepers are legal, beepers aren’t dangerous, jihadis are dangerous. Yes we use beepers as symbols to hand to people who idolize terrorists."
"Beepers handed out as mock gifts arent acceptable but those who openly praise Hamas and Hezbollah on Instagram are acceptable in 2024. It’s even harder for the Zionist community to stand up when Meta censors Israeli and Jewish voices."
"We ask publicly for anyone’s help who can help us get these accounts back to continue our operations,” said Ross Glick, Director of Betar USA.
As of Sunday midday Israel time, Instagram had not responded to the reports.