Israel: Police open criminal investigation against Facebook for jihad terror incitement

Shut it down! Not just in Israel, but everywhere!

Following PMW’s complaint, Police open criminal investigation against Facebook Israel for terror incitement

by Itamar Marcus, Palestinian Media Watch, October 21, 2021:

Palestinian Media Watch submitted a complaint on May 23, 2021 to Israeli police against Facebook Israel and its CEO for aiding and abetting Fatah incitement to terror, under clause 24(b)(1) of the Anti-Terror Law.

PMW has now been informed by Israeli police that it has opened an official investigation pursuant to our complaint. Conviction for someone who “publishes direct calls to commit acts of terror” is up to 5 years of imprisonment.

Background: In April and early May, Mahmoud Abbas’ PA and Fatah were actively inciting violence and terror. The Palestinian population was furious that Abbas had cancelled elections to prevent a Hamas victory, and Abbas was trying to distract them with a terror wave in defense of Jerusalem. With over a quarter of a million followers, the avenue of choice for the PA and Fatah to promote violence and terror was Fatah’s Facebook pages.

On May 9, 2021, PMW alerted Facebook, writing to the CEO of Facebook Israel Adi Soffer Teeni, that Fatah was using its many Facebook pages to publish calls to commit acts of terror. PMW demanded that Facebook close Fatah’s Facebook pages.

PMW warned Facebook: “If you fail to act as the violence [in Jerusalem] rages and as Fatah and its leaders continue to abuse the Facebook platform to spread violence, we will have no choice but to submit an official complaint to the Israeli police against Facebook in general and key personnel in particular, for the aiding and abetting the violence. We expect your quick and decisive response.” [PMW letter, May 9, 2021]

However, Facebook continued its policy of allowing Fatah to post incitement to hate and terror, and to publish direct calls to commit acts of terror, thus fanning the terror in Jerusalem and the rest of Israel throughout the Gaza war with Hamas.

PMW submitted the complaint to Israeli police against Facebook Israel and its CEO for incitement to terror on May 23 and recently was notified by the police that a formal investigation of PMW’s complaint was opened. Given the clear evidence (see below), we hope that the police will act swiftly against Facebook to determine if prosecution is warranted against the Israeli Facebook staff who made the decision to enable Fatah to use Facebook to promote terror. In addition, we hope the police will demand the closure of the Fatah’s Facebook pages that, as PMW has shown, have been actively fanning the flames of terror for many years.

Palestinian Media Watch submitted a complaint to Israeli police against Facebook Israel and its CEO Adi Soffer Teeni on May 23, 2021 for incitement to terror under clause 24(b)(1) of the Anti-Terror Law. PMW has been warning Facebook for years that it is a fundamental part of Fatah’s terror promotion, and has supplied Facebook with hundreds of examples of hate and terror promotion on Fatah’s Facebook platform as documented in numerous PMW reports. Facebook claims to be very strict about eliminating hate speech and promoting violence and closing other hate disseminating Facebook accounts. However, Facebook has made a decision to keep open the official Fatah page, thus allowing Fatah to disseminate hate speech against Israel, glorify terrorists who murder Israelis and even be a platform for Fatah’s calls to violence and terror. Given the importance of social media as a disseminator of incitement to violence, Facebook’s behavior has been life-threatening and places them as a central cog in Fatah’s terror infrastructure.

In PMW’s complaint to the police against Facebook Israel, we noted that on May 8, with Arab violence raging in Jerusalem including attacks on police and on Jews walking in the streets of Jerusalem, Fatah used 9 different Facebook pages, including its official Facebook page with 234,305 followers, to disseminate its call for violence, including…