The new Israeli minister of strategic affairs, Ron Dermer, has announced the appointment of Facebook’s Jordana Cutler as his ministry’s director general, according to Israeli media.
Cutler has previously held the post of Facebook public policy director for Israel & the Jewish diaspora for over six years, as well as other positions in the Israeli government as well as Tel Aviv’s US embassy, according to her LinkedIn profile.
The announcement, reported by the Israeli broadcaster Kan on Wednesday, did not indicate when Cutler will commence the post.
During her time at the social media giant, Facebook was faced with numerous accusations of bias against Palestinian content on its platform.
2 Jordana Cutler was called "Our woman at Facebook" by the Israeli newspaper JPost.
She would become the Director General of the Israeli Ministry in charge of online trolling, legal harassment & intelligence gathering against BDS activists as well as promoting normalization! pic.twitter.com/365s38x1hv
— Muhammad Shehada (@muhammadshehad2) January 12, 2023
Palestinians often campaign against Facebook’s censorship of Arabic and Hebrew-language content pertaining to Palestinian issues and Israeli violence against Palestinians.
Rights groups have long condemned the social media giant for suppressing and restricting Palestinian content.
Washington DC-born Cutler worked as an advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Jewish diaspora affairs between 2009 and 2013.
Cutler also worked as a media advisor in the Likud Party’s election campaign between 2005 and 2007.
Prior to her position at Facebook, she was chief of staff at the Embassy of Israel in the US.
Cutler’s appointment comes after a far-right government, headed by Netanyahu, came to power in Israel following elections in November.
(The New Arab, PC, SOCIAL)
