Facebook Finally Shuts Down Page Calling for Third Intifada

I'm sure many of you have heard of the Facebook page: Third Palestinian Intifada - الانتفاضة الفلسطينية الثالثة.

After pressure from pro-Israel groups and many different events and causes on facebook calling for founder Mark Zuckerberg to remove the page, Facebook finally took down the page early this morning.

The group calling for the Third Intifada, even picked a specific date in which they urged people to take to the streets and  begin an uprising.

As the page is written in Arabic, here is a translation of part of their message:

Countries neighboring Palestine will begin to march to Palestine on May 15, after the marches of neighboring states, soon after all Islamic countries will begin to march. Our time is close. Palestine will be liberated and we will liberate it. Our goal now is to reach millions of subscribers to this page before May. Arise, please publish the page in every place. Onward, Palestine.

The first Palestinian intifada was in the year 1987

The second Palestinian intifada was in the year 2000

And the third Palestinian intifada:

5-15-2011

The group understanding the power of social media, perhaps in light of the revolution in Egypt, told followers to "Copy our link and put it in your profile, and publish it in every picture and video and pages and everywhere."

Some comments left by group members were hateful, and they incited violence.  One example: “The hour [of redemption] does not come until the Muslim fight the Jews and even the stones and trees say, ‘O Muslim, a Jew is behind me, so kill him.’”

Facebook had previously said that they were monitoring such comments, however, they did not agree to remove the page saying, "While some kinds of comments and content may be upsetting for someone – criticism of a certain culture, country, religion, lifestyle, or political ideology, for example – that alone is not a reason to remove the discussion. We strongly believe that Facebook users have the ability to express their opinions, and we don’t typically take down content, groups or Pages that speak out against countries, religions, political entities, or ideas.”

Last time I checked, a page inciting violence, calling for the death of Jews and a specific date to liberate Palestine would qualify the page for removal.

ADL National Director Abraham Foxman, quoted in Haaretz.com, said "We should not be so naïve 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."

While I am glad Facebook has finally agreed to shut down the page, I am extremely disappointed it took this long.  The group managed to attract over 340,000 followers before its removal, and since then, another page has gone up in its place.  When I started this blog post, around 15 minutes ago, the new page had 318 followers.  As I conclude, it has 351.

Hopefully Facebook will get it right this time, and shut down this page immediately.