Israel’s Facebook bill

Netanyahu and likeminded extremist MKs want views opposing their own suppressed—especially ones expressed by Palestinians in their longstanding struggle for justice.

On Tuesday, a controversial Facebook bill passed its first reading. Two more are required for it to become law.

The measure would let Netanyahu’s coalition regime force Facebook, and presumably other social media sites, to remove content Israel claims might suggest “incitement”—meaning whatever Israeli officials claim, regardless of justification.

Extremist Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and Justice Minister Ayelet (“little snakes”) Shaked proposed the measure, jointly saying it would “only be invoked in cases of suspected incitement, where there is a real possibility that the material in question endangers the public or national security.”

They want suppression of all content hostile to Israel’s oppressive interests—part of its war on speech, academic and media freedoms.

In America, Israel and elsewhere, Facebook targets truth-telling, suppressing what authorities want concealed. Some extremist MKs aren’t satisfied, saying more needs to be done to remove content inciting “acts of terror against Jews.”

According to Erdan, “(I)f someone writes something problematic and they live in [Occupied Palestine, Facebook] won’t cooperate with us, and they say it’s outside of Israel and therefore they can’t cooperate.”

Israel routinely arrests and detains Palestinians for social media comments—without justification, calling views other than its own “incitement.”

Netanyahu wants Facebook censoring all content it calls promoting “terrorism”—meaning justifiable criticism of its rogue policies.

In July, an Israeli lawyer sued Facebook for $1 billion, absurdly claiming it gives Palestinians a platform for planning, inciting and carrying out attacks against Americans and Israelis.

Earlier, Shaked used Facebook to advocate the killing of Palestinian women, calling them mothers of “little snakes.”

Israeli state terror threatens Jews and non-Jews alike. Given Trump’s apparent one-sided support for the Jewish state, expect fundamental Palestinian rights to be egregiously abused unaccountably while he’s in office.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” Visit his blog at sjlendman.blogspot.com . Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.

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