News / Palestine

Hamas slams Twitter for closing of accounts

Friday, 01 April 2016 5:13 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 01 April 2016 5:12 PM ]

This November 7, 2013 file photo shows the logo of Twitter on the front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York. (AFP photo)

Hamas has slammed Twitter for closing several accounts linked to the Palestinian resistance movement, saying the company is biased in favor of the Israeli regime.

The Hamas military wing, Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement on Friday that its English- and Arabic-language accounts had been shut down for the third time in a fortnight.

Twitter is showing a "clear bias to the Israeli occupation where it should (adopt a) neutral position toward both sides," the statement added.

It said that the closure comes while Twitter allows Israeli officials to encourage "racism, extremism and terrorism" on the social networking site.

Qassam also urged Twitter to reopen its accounts, saying one of those closed accounts had been followed by over 140,000 followers.

Twitter declined to comment, saying in a statement that the company does not comment on individual accounts citing "privacy and security reasons."

Since its establishment in December 1987, Hamas has refused to recognize Israel and adopted resistance against the Israeli occupation, which it believes is the sole way of bringing about the liberation of occupied Palestinian territories. The movement says its goal is to liberate the entire Palestine.

The Palestinian resistance movement scored a landslide victory in Palestinian elections in 2006. Hamas has ruled the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, while Fatah has set up headquarters in the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank.

Israel has waged three large-scale aerial and ground wars on Gaza in the past seven years. In its latest act of aggression in the summer of 2014, which lasted for 50 days, the regime killed about 2,200 Palestinians and inflicted heavy damage on Gaza’s infrastructure and economy. In that latest Israeli aggression, Twitter shut down most of Hamas' accounts.

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