Facebook page inciting Palestinian violence toward Israel removed (VIDEO)
Israeli relatives and friends grieve during the funeral of three young children and their parents of the Fogel family, stabbed to death in their beds as they slept in the West Bank settlement of Itamar, on March 13, 2011 in Jerusalem’s Har Hamuhot cemetery. The killers, who are believed to be Palestinian, are still at large and police are on high alert for fear of possible reprisals by settlers against locals once the burial rites are over.
A Facebook page calling for another Palestinian uprising has reportedly been pulled off the social media website following complaints from the Israeli government that it incited violence.
Diplomacy Minister Yuli Edelstein wrote a letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, warning that the page — with 240,000 fans — included calls to kill Jews and to liberate Jerusalem through violence, according to Haaretz.
The page urged Palestinians to take to the streets on May 15, or Nakba Day — the date on which Arabs mourn the establishment of Israel — after Friday prayers and begin an intifada ("terror war") in the vein of the first two popular uprisings in the late '80s and early this decade. Both intifada were bloody and protracted uprisings that left thousands dead through suicide bombings, rocket attacks and shootings, and the Mideast peace process in tatters.
"Judgment Day will be brought upon us only once the Muslims have killed all of the Jews," the page — bearing the name "Third Palestinian Intifada" — implored.
Soon after the page was removed, a new page went up with the same name.
The Third Palestinian Intifada page was launched by a newly formed "super-viral" Palestinian group on Facebook, according to Jewish "e-newspaper" algemeiner, adding that it has Israelis worried.
Facebook's decision to take down the page came only after a wave of protest, ranging from Israeli politicians to individual Facebook users who reported the web page to site management, according to the Jerusalem Post.
The Anti-Defamation League, which had filed an official complaint against Facebook, welcomed the decision. "We should not be so naive to believe that a campaign for a ‘Third Intifada’ does not portend renewed violence, especially in the current climate that has seen a dramatic increase in rocket attacks from Gaza, the brutal murder of the Fogel family in the West Bank, and a terrorist bombing in Jerusalem," the league's National Director Abraham Foxman said.
He was referring to the stabbing murders on March 11 of five members of the Fogel family of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including the three young children.
Israeli troops have detained 60 people over the murders, with Israeli police saying they suspect Palestinians of carrying out the attack. According to the BBC, the investigation is focusing on the Palestinian village of Awarta, near Nablus.