Twitter Official: Khamenei’s Anti-Israel Tweets Don’t Violate Rules
A Twitter official asserted that anti-Israeli tweets by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, including those calling for the Jewish state’s “elimination,” are not a violation of the social network’s rules.
Ylwa Pettersson, Twitter’s policy head for Israel and Nordic countries, made the comments on Wednesday during a conversation with Knesset members, according to i24NEWS.
“We have an approach toward leaders that says that direct interactions with fellow public figures, comments on political issues of the day, or foreign policy saber-rattling on military-economic issues are generally not in violation of our rules,” she told the lawmakers in a video-call.
Pettersson was responding to a question from pro-Israel activist Arsen Ostrovsky, who highlighted the fact that the social media company recently attached warnings to a number of tweets by US President Donald Trump, but chose to take no action in regards to Khamenei.
In May, the Iranian Supreme Leader posted a tweet in which he threatened to implement the Nazi “Final Solution” against Israel.
After Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded to those threats, Khamenei asserted that, in using the term “Final Solution”, he did not refer to Jews but rather only to the State of Israel.
Khamenei was later at it again, threatening that “the Zionist virus will not last long and the Zionist regime will not survive – and will be destroyed.”
Netanyahu later responded to Khamenei and said, “We say again – those who threaten Israel with extermination place themselves in similar danger.”
Strategic Affairs Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen (Blue and White) subsequently sent an official letter to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in which she demanded that he immediately suspend the account of the Iranian Supreme Leader.
