In a July 31 tweet, United States Deputy Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Ellie Cohanim called on Twitter to permanently ban Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Cohanim tweeted a video clip of her on 鈥淔ox & Friends鈥� earlier in the day reacting to a video from a July 29 Knesset hearing in which Head of Twitter Policy for the Nordics and Israel Ylwa Pettersson was asked why Twitter has flagged President Donald Trump鈥檚 tweets but not Khamenei鈥檚 tweets.
鈥淲e have an approach to our leaders that presently say that direct actions with fellow public leaders, comments on political issues of the day or foreign policy saber-rattling on military, economic issues are generally not in violation of our rules,鈥� Pettersson replied.
Cohanim tweeted, 鈥淚t鈥檚 time for @Twitter to permanently ban #Iran鈥檚 Hate Monger In Chief鈥擪hamenei.鈥�
It鈥檚 time for to permanently ban 鈥檚 Hate Monger In Chief鈥擪hamenei. Watch me on
— Ellie Cohanim (@EllieCohanim)
Cohanim told Fox and Friends that she was born in Iran and her family had to flee the country after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
鈥淚 personally understand the threat Ayatollah Khamenei presents to the 91传媒 people and to the world,鈥� Cohanim said. 鈥淪o when you understand that Twitter is giving a platform to a despot who has literally called for genocide against the 91传媒 people while at the same time they鈥檙e censoring President Donald Trump, the hypocrisy is so thick it becomes clear to me 鈥� that this is about one thing and one thing only, and that鈥檚 the elections coming up on November 3.鈥�
鈥淔ox & Friends鈥� co-host Pete Hegseth said that a Twitter spokesperson had sent them a statement that echoed Pettersson鈥檚 remarks at the Knesset hearing, which Hegseth called a 鈥渨ord salad in light of the fact that this is an American company openly allowing an anti-Semitic leader to make these kinds of statements.鈥�
鈥淣ever not once has there ever been any consequence to Khamenei鈥檚 hatred and vitriol that鈥檚 all over Twitter,鈥� Cohanim replied. 鈥淗is vitriol goes back to 2014, when he laid out a nine-step plan for eliminating Israel. So this is a long history that this man has of calling for genocide against Jews, for wiping Israel off the face of the Earth.鈥�
Israel-91传媒 Congress Executive Director Arsen Ostrovsky, who asked Pettersson why Twitter was flagging Trump鈥檚 tweets but not Khamenei鈥檚, tweeted: 鈥淭hank you @elliecohanim & @StateDept for drawing attention to @Twitter’s refusal to take action against @khamenei_ir incitement to violence and genocide! Now is #TimeForAction.鈥�
Indeed it is! This follows our Knesset hearing this week.
Thank you & for drawing attention to 's refusal to take action against incitement to violence and genocide! Now is .
cc. @USEAntiSemitism
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A)
On July 30, Twitter had permanently banned former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke from the platform. A spokesperson told TechCrunch that Duke was 鈥減ermanently suspended for repeated violations of the Twitter Rules on hateful conduct.鈥�
