'Apple drops 3rd Intifada application from online store'

Diplomacy and Diaspora Ministry claims Apple CEO Steve Jobs removed application after Edelestein sent letter of request.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
iPad 311 (photo credit: BLOOMBERG)
iPad 311
(photo credit: BLOOMBERG)
California-based computer company Apple Inc. removed an application from its online store called "3rd Intifada," a statement released by the Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry on Thursday said. The application gave information about protest activities planned against Israel, some of them violent.
The announcement of the application's removal came after Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein sent a letter to Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday, requesting that the computer giant stop sales of the application.
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Earlier in the year, public outcry against a Facebook page carrying the same title was also removed after company heads decided that the page's creator had posted incitement to violence against Israelis and Jews.
In both the Apple application and Facebook page, opponents expressed their concerns that calls for a "3rd Intifada" were inherently violent. The diplomacy and diaspora affairs minister claimed that both the Apple application and Facebook page were started by the same organization, seeking the same goals. He called on Apple to remove this new application and continue in its tradition of applications "dedicated purely to entertainment and informative purposes and not serving as a instruments for incitement to violence." 
"I believe Apple, as a pioneering and progressive company, places the values of liberty, freedom of expression and creativity as a guiding light," Edelsetein wrote.
Herb Keinon contributed to this report.