Pro-Palestinian demonstrators at a protest outside Columbia University, in Manhattan, April 18, 2024. (Luke Tress)

(New York Jewish Week) — Two pro-Palestinian student groups in New York City said their Instagram accounts had been taken down, depriving them of one of their key organizing platforms at the cusp of a new semester.

Columbia University’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine said on Monday that its Instagram account had been removed. The group said on X that it had 124,000 followers and that a new Instagram page it set up was also quickly taken down.

A day later, the People’s Solidarity Coalition at New York University said its Instagram page had been suspended.

Anti-Israel activists around the city lashed Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, accusing it of unfair treatment. Columbia SJP said it had been permanently suspended “with no reason provided and no opportunity for appeal.”

“Meta has blood on its hands,” the NYU student group said in a statement shared on the Telegram messaging app. The Palestinian Youth Movement, in a widely shared statement, said it “condemns Meta’s ongoing censorship of Palestinian organizations.”

Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last month, it issued new guidelines banning the use of the word “Zionists” to advance “antisemitic stereotypes, or threaten other types of harm through intimidation or violence directed against Jews or Israelis.”

In February, Within Our Lifetime, the prominent hardline pro-Palestinian group, announced that it was banned from Instagram. A spokesperson for Meta told the New York Jewish Week at the time that the group’s accounts had been removed because they violated the platform’s community guidelines, including its “Dangerous Organizations & Individuals policy.”

This week, the NYU administration similarly issued new hate speech guidelines saying that the use of “Zionists” is banned if employed to target Jews or Israelis.

NYU’s People’s Solidarity Coalition, formerly the Palestine Solidarity Coalition, a consortium of university organizations, said it “attacks the university from different vantage points” to oppose NYU’s “settler-colonial occupation, genocide and imperial wars.” The coalition also said it supports “armed struggle” and the Palestinian “right to resist.”

Columbia’s pro-Palestinian groups announced a similar coalition last year called Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which remains on Instagram. It is led by the university’s SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace, both of which were banned by the university last year for violating campus protest policies. CU Apartheid Divest has been at the forefront of campus protests since their suspension.

Pro-Palestinian groups from the two universities, and other student organizations around the city, regularly share and amplify each other’s messaging, and collaborate with each other and non-student activist groups on events. Many of the groups, including National SJP, the Palestinian Youth Movement, and Within Our Lifetime, have routed their funding through the same small charity north of the city.

Within Our Lifetime, which regularly calls for Israel’s destruction and a “global intifada,” endorsed Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Since then, it has protested against the memorialization of the attack’s victims, Jewish organizations, holiday celebrations, synagogues, and medical centers. Its leader, Nerdeen Kiswani, has expressed open support for Hamas.

Pro-Palestinian groups around the city, led by Within Our Lifetime and including Columbia SJP, announced a major protest on Monday in Union Square.

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