With A ‘Sea of Blood’ Will ‘Create the State of Palestine’, Fatah continues to make its motives and desires clear - by Sean Durns

...Facebook never explained its reasons for removing—or for reinstating—Fatah’s page. Less than a year later, Fatah continues to violate the social network’s stated guidelines against threatening language. And it continues to make its motives and desires clear.

Sean Durns..
CAMERA Snapshots..
16 October '17..
Link: http://blog.camera.org/archives/2017/10/_fatah_a_sea_of_blood_will_cre.html

Fatah is the movement that dominates the Palestinian Authority (PA), the entity responsible for governing the West Bank (Judea and Samaria). Controlled by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, the movement is frequently labeled “moderate” by many news outlets. But even a cursory look at Fatah’s Facebook page should dispel that myth.

According to Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), a non-profit organization that translates media in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, Fatah recently authored a social media post that spelled out its objectives.

PMW noted that, in an Oct. 3, 2017 post on its official Facebook page, Fatah proclaimed:

“From the blood of the Martyrs (Shahids) we will create the State of Palestine.”

Having enunciated its methods for state building, Fatah’s Nablus branch offered more details in an Oc. 4, 2017, Facebook post, which stated:

“The Palestinian blood is not oil or water, but rather the salt of the earth and the gunpowder of the revolution.”

Images of Palestinian “leaders,” such as Fathi Shaqaqi, the founder of U.S. designated terror group Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Ahmad Yassin, the deceased founder of Hamas, and others, accompanied the Facebook post.

Is Facebook now a pipeline for funding Hamas terrorism?

...As a target audience, foreign activists are perfect. They are concentrated in a small space. Many are obsessive and almost none check the veracity of the message they are being given. The term ‘like shooting ducks in a barrel’ comes to mind.

David Collier..
Across the Great Divide..
31 July '16..

Arabs in Gaza are swarming social media platforms and sending private messages to pro-Palestinian activists looking for donations. Is it just one massive scam? Or are Hamas utilising social media platforms, not just to spread propaganda, but as a pipeline to raise funds for their terrorist activities?

Hamas are one of the most brutal terrorist organisations on earth. Some of their attacks, such as the Passover massacre in 2002 or the Dizengoff Centre attack in 1996, highlight an undiluted strategy of barbarism. All terror attacks are difficult to digest, but deliberately targeting elderly people at a religious service, or children partying in fancy dress at Purim, leaves a particularly bitter taste.

In more recent years, Hamas have held Gaza’s entire population hostage. They seek conflict through firing indiscriminate rockets at Israeli population centres, thus deliberately placing their own civilians in harm’s way. Hamas then use the inevitable result as propaganda material for their cause. A calculated, callous and inhumane act.

Because of Europe’s blind inability to connect the dots (a blindness that is tragically coming home to haunt them), Hamas has always worked hard on public perception. The Hamas propaganda machinery learnt to utilise social media platforms to perfection. The vast majority of distorted, manipulated imagery that is used by the anti-Israel squad in the west, emerges from the hands of Hamas in Gaza.

With its military arm recognised as a terrorist organisation in most civilised nations, the more responsible charities have a difficult time trying to ensure funds do not become diverted towards terrorist activity. The Syrian civil conflict complicated matters further for Hamas, as it found itself alienated from its main sponsor, Iran. Hamas are currently handing out land to civil servants because they are unable to pay the wage bill. Hamas is a terror group desperately seeking both friends and funding.

Enter Facebook.

I have been active on Facebook for years, and apart from the odd scam, I don’t think I have ever been privately approached for money. Yet in discussion with some anti-Israel activists, I found that ‘being approached for money’ was almost a daily occurrence for them....

(Continue to Full Post)

Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. 

.

Google, Facebook and the Internet Battle of Israel-Palestine

Bethany Mandel..
Commentary/Contentions..
03 May '13..

Despite a stalled peace process and a recent Arab Peace Initative that has no hope of achieving its stated goal (as Jonathan and Seth discussed yesterday), there have been interesting developments in the region this week, albeit in cyberspace. The Google main search page for those searching within the West Bank and Gaza has been changed from “Palestinian Territories” to simply “Palestine.” Foreign Policy’s blog reported on the change and indicated it may have been inspired by the somewhat recent vote to upgrade the Palestinians’ status at the UN.

This isn’t the first time an online giant has become involved in the conflict. Last year it was noted by many Israelis that the location of their postings from within Israel were tagged “Palestine” and “East Jerusalem” on Facebook. One blogger for the Times of Israel noted:

Apparently Facebook no longer lists my town of ‘Neve Daniel’ as ‘Israel’, but rather as a city in ‘Palestine.’ Truthfully, this type of geographical blundering isn’t a particularly new development. In fact, I remember a time when I could ‘choose’ to tag my location either ‘Neve Daniel, Israel’ or ‘Neve Daniel, West Bank.’ Since 2010, Bing Maps have powered Facebook’s Places and locations. Frankly I don’t hold much stock in Bing Maps. A simple search in Bing could not even find Neve Daniel at all, in any country. I don’t know the back end of these programs, or how they work or fail to work. I can say that I successfully tagged the location on a photo, as I’ve done many times, as ‘Neve Daniel, Israel.’ Though what I saw, depending on where I was viewing it, was either only ‘Neve Daniel’ or ‘Neve Daniel, West Bank.’ What other people saw, and what they rushed to tell me and send me screen shots of, was ‘Neve Daniel, Palestine.’

Free Speech, the Arab World and Facebook's "Accidental Mistake"

Many Palestinian journalists, and those in the Middle East, are forced to use Facebook to publish what their own media will not accept. But the problem becomes worse when Facebook itself starts removing material that bothers dictatorships and tyrants. One can only hope that the same Facebook employee who "accidentally" removed the article will make the same mistake and and close down the accounts belonging to terrorist organizations and their leaders. It is the duty of Facebook and Western societies to side with those seeking freedom, and not to be complicit in suppressing their voices.

Khaled Abu Toameh..
Gatestone Institute..
18 January '13..

"All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of censorship." — George Bernard Shaw

Earlier this week, Facebook closed down this writer's account for "security reasons," arguing that he had posted an item that violates its terms of use.

Twenty-four hours later, Facebook issued a "sincere apology" and said that a member of its team had "accidentally removed something you posted on Facebook. This was a mistake."

Although Facebook did not say which "problematic" item had prompted it to take such a drastic measure, apparently it was referring to an article that had been published by Gatestone Institute: The Palestinian Authority's Inconvenient Truths.

Facebook's move came at a time when Arab dictatorships in general, and the Palestinian Authority in particular, have been cracking down on Facebook users.

During the past year alone, a number of Palestinian journalists and bloggers were arrested by Western-funded Palestinian Authority security services in the West Bank for criticizing the PA leadership on their Facebook pages.

Journalist Removed By Facebook for Posting Articles on Palestinian Corruption

Simon Plosker..
Honest Reporting..
15 January '13..

(Update: According to Lori Lowenthal Marcus of the JP: ...“Fatah couldn’t stop me, Hamas couldn’t stop me, not even Facebook will stop me from continuing my work,” is what Arab Israeli journalist Khaled abu Toameh told The Jewish Press Tuesday morning, January 15, in a lengthy interview about Facebook’s bizarre treatment of his Facebook page. In the space of less than 24 hours, abu Toameh’s page was shut down, parts of it were scrubbed, and then it was back, without a word of explanation. For everyone who breathed a sigh of relief that this journalist hasn’t been censored, who hoped it had just been a glitch – the truth is that something very wrong has happened. Several articles dealing with corruption in the Palestinian Authority and in the Jordanian intelligence were scrubbed from abu Toameh’s page while his page was hidden from the public... cont.)

Khaled Abu Toameh is an internationally respected journalist and is a regular speaker on HonestReporting’s Missions. He is probably the bravest journalist operating in the Palestinian territories today, reporting on Palestinian affairs where others are either too intimidated or in thrall to the Palestinian Authority or Hamas to expose the ills of Palestinian society and its leadership.

The Commentator reports:

Social networking website Facebook has today been accused of attempting to silence critics of the Palestinian Authority as it cracked down on the page owned by Arab-Israeli writer Khaled Abu Toameh.

Abu Toameh, the son of an Arab Israeli father and a Palestinian mother, is a former senior reporter for the Jerusalem Post. He has reported that as of yesterday, his Facebook page had been deactivated.

The Commentator has learned that following complaints from the Palestinian Authority and Jordanian security authorities about his articles dealing with corruption, Facebook had taken the steps necessary to effectively censor his work.

Removed By Facebook, Apple, Droid, Hizbullah Maneuvers To Remain On U.S. Social Media

Steven Stalinsky..
MEMRI..
Inquiry & Analysis Series Report No.876..
22 August '12..

Introduction

Yesterday, Hizbullah created two new Facebook pages for its Al-Manar TV, following Facebook's removal of previous Hizbullah and Al-Manar TV pages. This maneuver is a new phase in Hizbullah's efforts to maintain its social media presence. Similarly, Hizbullah has also created new unofficial Apple and Droid apps, after the official ones were removed from the Apple Store and Google Play.

Efforts to remove Hizbullah to social media begin on July 27, 2012, when MEMRI published a report titled Designated Terrorist Organization Hizbullah Makes Extensive Use Of U.S. Social Media – Apple iTunes, iPad and iPhone, Google, Android, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter – In Violation Of U.S. Law detailing how Hizbullah uses American social media for its outreach efforts and to disseminate information. Following the publication of the MEMRI report, Hizbullah's iPhone and iPad apps were removed from iTunes, its Android app was removed from Google Play, and its Facebook pages for Hizbullah and for its Al-Manar TV station were removed; subsequently, MEMRI issued follow-up reports on the issue,[1] which led to another Hizbullah Facebook page being shut down.

Tobin - The Palestinian Facebook Police

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
08 February '12..

Some staffers and diplomats at the State Department with time on their hands are, no doubt, working hard right now to come up with a legal rationale for continuing U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority. The consummation of the Fatah-Hamas unity pact earlier this week and the impending ouster of PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad ought to make any further assistance to Mahmoud Abbas’s rogue regime legally and morally untenable. But in case apologists for keeping U.S. taxpayer dollars flowing to terrorists pledged to Israel’s destruction are paying attention, even before the new unity government takes office there are plenty of reasons to think seriously about American subsidies for the corrupt and tyrannical PA.

While many Americans are obsessing about human rights elsewhere in the Arab world, it appears the American-funded PA is practicing its own brand of tyranny. The Jerusalem Post’s Khaled Abu Toameh reports the Palestinian security forces are now monitoring Facebook posts by residents of the West Bank and taking those who make critical remarks about the PA’s leadership in for questioning. Because Palestinians know all too well the armed gunmen who report to Abbas and his underlings are Fatah thugs and not genuine law enforcement officers, the upshot of is only nice things are going to be said there about Abbas.

The Aftermath: Facebook and the Third Intifada

Dr. Andre Oboler
Internet Engagement/JPost
30 March '11

http://blogs.jpost.com/content/facebook-and-third-intifada-aftermath

In the last week the Facebook group for the Third Intifada made headlines around the world. First in the Arabic language press, advertising and supporting it, then in the Jewish and Israeli press condemning it, and finally in the mainstream media always thirsty for more stories of ‘cycles of violence’ in the Middle East and perhaps sensing a bloodletting was in the pipeline. Real world events, in the form of unrelated Palestinian terror attacks, provided a backdrop.

The Third Intifada page has now been taken down, yet others are rapidly springing up in its place. A leading member of Fatah, Demetri Deliani, told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa that "Minister Yuli Edelstein needs lessons in human rights and freedom of expression as he is not aware of the world's respect for individual opinion". Edelstein is of course not only Israel’s Minister for Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs, he is also a human rights hero. Born in the Soviet Union, in what is today Ukraine, Edelstein spent his twenties illegally teaching Hebrew and promoting aliyah. The authorities eventually caught up with him and he spent three years in a soviet labor camp.

It is his personal experience that gives Edelstein an insight into the balance between the human right of freedom of expression, and the responsibility to protect other human rights, like life and physical safety. Yuli holds not only a mandate to tackle antisemitism as part of his ministerial portfolio, he was also made chair of the Working Group on online hate of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism, a group of Parliamentarians and experts from over 40 countries. It was Yuli, in his personal capacity, and not in his official capacity as Minister Edelstein, who wrote to Facebook. Perhaps Facebook initially failed to appreciate the significance of that.

Demetri Deliani is assuming people everywhere will value freedom of expression so highly they that they will allow its use for any purpose. Perhaps he is right, and this is how people at Facebook, in their naivety, would like to see it. After all, it suits their business purpose, they more content they can publish, without having to implement safe guards, or take any responsibility for the deaths, violence, suicides and mental harm that can result, the higher their profit margins. Imagine the cost to Facebook if they had liability in the same way the owner of a hall has when they rented it out for a gathering they know may be unsafe and might turn to violence. Perhaps it is self interest and not naivety that drives Facebook to keep the standards low and the intervention slow.

Facing Hate and Hypocrisy: Facebook?

Daphne Anson
27 March '11

Related post: "We are coming, Palestine"



Sign the petition - http://www.aish.com/v/is/93393689.html - calling on Facebook to remove this call to violence!

Stop the hate pages on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118719501492072&v

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

2 Lessons from Hamas’s Facebook Fail

Alex Margolin
Honest Reporting/Backspin
05 December '10

HonestReporting's social media editor, Alex Margolin, contributes occasional posts on social media issues. He oversees HonestReporting on Facebook.

Last week, Hamas (or someone claiming to speak for the terror group) launched an English language Facebook Page for the al Qassam Brigades – Hamas Military Wing. Within days, the group was spotted by Aussie Dave and others, who urged people to “report” the group to Facebook’s administrators.

The group was promptly removed, causing the al Qassam Brigades to lament online that “Facebook administration proves that it is a real cheap tool biased for the Zionist occupation in Palestine.”

While Facebook’s banning of a group that is blacklisted as a terror group by the State Department may not seem like a big story, there are at least two elements that are worth highlighting.

(Read full post)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

Success: Golan Facebookers Ain't Syrian

Backspin/Honest Reporting
07 September 09

Little more than a week ago, HonestReporting launched the Facebook group,Facebook, Golan Residents Live in Israel, not Syria.

This was in response to Facebook settings that only allowed Golan residents to chooseSyria as their home country. But our members got Facebook's attention: last night, we discovered that Facebook changed the settings. The heights are no longer exclusively "Syrian" now. Facebookers in communities like Ramat Magshimim, Geshur, and Had Nes aren't forced to "select" Syria in the dropdown box.

Screen grab before, with Syria as the only option:




Screen grab after, now includes Israel

Credit Facebook for simply making the change without getting dragged into an acrimonious and embarrassing political debate. And credit our 2,490 members for getting involved and getting results.

Be sure to join the ongoing discussion at HonestReporting's Facebook page.