YouTube deletes more than 700 videos documenting Israeli war crimes

YouTube removed the channels of three Palestinian human rights organizations — Al-Haq, Al Mezan and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) — in early October, deleting more than 700 videos that documented Israeli violations in Gaza and the West Bank. The platform justifies this decision by the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration against these NGOs for their collaboration with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which recently indicted Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant for war crimes. Google, owner of YouTube, simply claims to “comply with sanctions and international trade laws.”

The NGOs concerned denounce a serious attack on freedom of expression and a deliberate erasure of evidence of violations of international law. “By removing our videos, YouTube is complicit in silencing Palestinian victims,” said PCHR’s Basel al-Sourani. This decision is part of a broader climate of digital repression of Palestinian voices. After Mailchimp and other American services, YouTube joins the list of platforms which, under the guise of legal compliance, participate in a policy of erasing Palestinian stories.

This new episode reveals the worrying face of a platform which presents itself as a free space for expression, but which zealously complies with the most arbitrary political injunctions. By removing highly probative material about war crimes, YouTube is not protecting the “legal certainty” of its business — it is shielding war criminals from public accountability. This gesture marks a shift: the digital giant is no longer a simple host, but a political actor involved in the censorship of Palestinian voices. Behind the rhetoric of conformity lies a darker reality — that of a platform which, by erasing traces of reality, participates in the fabrication of the official lie.