The Facebook social networking site is monitoring an Arabic-language page which
calls for a “third intifada” against Israel, but the site’s bosses have
concluded that it has not gone beyond the bounds of acceptable speech, and have
decided not to remove it, The Jerusalem Post learned on Sunday.
The
Facebook page, called “Third Palestinian intifada,” has attracted over 330,000
fans since going online, and has issued a call for a mass march into Israel from
neighboring countries.
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It has been condemned as a violence-promoting page
by Diaspora Affairs and Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli Edelstein, who sent a
letter last week to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg with a request to remove
the page, and by the Anti-Defamation League, whose national director, Abraham
Foxman, described it as “an appalling abuse of technology to promote terrorist
violence.”
The page is centered around the following message, composed by
the administrator, “The neighboring country will start a march to Palestine on
the 15th of May. After that, all the Muslim countries will soon march, [and]
Palestine will be liberated.”
A translation of the Arabic text was
provided by the SITE Monitoring Service, which tracks online jihadi
activity.
Since creating the page, a number of posts have been left on it
by fans that carry both implicit and explicit violent content, SITE has
found.
These include, “Prepare: Death comes to you, O raider of this
abode.”
The page’s administrators posted a quotation of a Hadith (Islamic
tradition) that is popular with radical groups, which reads, “The hour [of
redemption] does not come until the Muslim fight the Jews and even the stones
and trees say, ‘O Muslim, a Jew is behind me, so kill him.’” Other posts have
made reference to “paradise,” a term often used in Islamist circles to promote
acts of terrorism.
“Paradise beckons you to tell everyone about 5/15,”
read one post.
Individual posts and comments on the page that incite to
violence are being investigated by Facebook and removed, sources within the
networking site have said. Facebook representatives have also made contact with
the page’s administrator and requested closer monitoring of content.
The
Facebook page has been picked up by and promoted on jihadi Internet forums.
Earlier this month, an al-Qaida affiliated forum discussed the page’s creation,
and urged members to join it.
A statement e-mailed to the Post by a
Facebook spokesman said, “We want Facebook to be a place where people can openly
discuss issues and express their views, while respecting the rights and feelings
of others.
“With now more than 500 million users from around the world,
who have varying cultures and ideals, using Facebook as a place to discuss and
share things that are important to them, we sometimes find people discussing and
posting about topics that others may find controversial, inaccurate, or
offensive.
“While some kinds of comments and content may be upsetting for
someone – criticism of a certain culture, country, religion, lifestyle, or
political ideology, for example – that alone is not a reason to remove the
discussion. We strongly believe that Facebook users have the ability to express
their opinions, and we don’t typically take down content, groups or Pages that
speak out against countries, religions, political entities, or ideas.”
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