YouTube has removed the accounts of three prominent Palestinian human rights groups, erasing more than 700 videos that documented abuses by Israeli forces in Gaza and the West Bank, a report by The Intercept has found.
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al-Haq and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights were all banned from the platform in early October after sanctions from Donald Trump’s administration.
Videos from the three accounts included testimonies from people who were tortured and an investigation into the 2022 killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by an IDF sniper.
That investigation, by Al-Haq in partnership with British research group Forensic Architecture, found the reporter was deliberately targeted even though it was clear she was a member of the press – contradicting Israel’s claim that her death was an accident.
YouTube said the bans were a response to sanctions imposed in September by Trump’s government, which targeted the three groups for assisting the International Criminal Court (ICC) with war crimes cases against Israeli officials.
In February, Trump sanctioned the British ICC prosecutor Karim Khan, who secured arrest warrants for prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant.
Four judges who approved the warrants were later also hit with sanctions.
Katherine Gallagher, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, told The Intercept that the statute Trump cited for his ICC sanctions does not justify deleting footage.
“Information, including documents and videos, are specifically exempted,” she said.
Tech giants have repeatedly capitulated to pressure to censor pro-Palestinian voices since the start of Israel’s genocide in October 2023.
Last month, Instagram deleted the account of Gaza-based journalist Saleh Aljafarawi, who had 4.5 million followers, shortly after he was killed by an Israel-backed militia.