Facebook? Israel Blocks Terrorists, Palestinians Block Critics - by Bassam Tawil

What Abbas and his senior officials apparently fear is that the current wave of anti-corruption protests sweeping Lebanon and other Arab countries may reach the West Bank. They appear nervous that their critics and political rivals will use social media to encourage Palestinians to revolt against corruption and tyranny.

Bassam Tawil..
Gatestone Institute..
30 October '19..

For the past few months, Palestinians have been accusing Facebook of "waging war on Palestinian content" by suspending dozens of accounts belonging to Palestinian activists and groups suspected of anti-Israel incitement and promotion of terrorism. The Palestinians even went as far as accusing the social media giant of being in collusion with Israel to "suppress the Palestinian narrative and conceal the reality of Israeli crimes."

In the context of the campaign, the Palestinians used the hashtag #FBblocksPalestine to "reveal the double-standard policy of Facebook management in dealing with Israeli and Palestinian incitement on its site," according to the Palestinian NGO Sada Social Center.

Earlier this month, Facebook further angered Palestinians when it deleted the page of the Hamas-affiliated Palestinian Information Center. Several Palestinian journalists, political activists and Hamas officials accused Facebook of serving as a "tool of suppression" in the hands of Israel.

The London-based group, ImpACT International for Human Rights Policies, claimed that Israel was exploiting its relations with Facebook to "combat Palestinian content." The group also claimed that the war on Palestinian content was attributed to "economic interests" between Israel and Facebook.

The past week, however, has shown that if anyone is waging war on Palestinian content, it is the Palestinians themselves.

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Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East.