Complaints by Israeli settlers angry at Facebook for listing them as residents of "Palestine" prompted the popular social networking Web site to allow users to switch their location back to Israel.
Facebook users living in Maaleh Adumim, Ariel and other large settlements in the West Bank protested when the site automatically listed their hometowns as being in "Palestine". A group of settlers accused the California-based company of having a political agenda.
"I was surprised and disappointed to find that my hometown of Ariel is listed in Facebook as being part of a country called 'Palestine,'" wrote Ari Zimmerman in a posting on Facebook. "I am a citizen of Israel, as are all of the other residents of Ariel. We do not live in 'Palestine', nor does anyone else."
Brandee Barker, Facebook's director of communications, said users living in major settlement blocs can now choose between being listed as residents of Israel or Palestine.
"Facebook users in the Israeli West Bank settlements of Maale Adumim, Beitar Illit, and Ariel can now choose between Israel and Palestine," Barker said last week in an email to Reuters.
Israel wants to hold onto Maale Adumim and other major settlement blocs under any future peace deal with the Palestinians
"We also offer Hebron in both Israel and Palestine," Barker said, referring to the major West Bank city which is home to about 150,000 Palestinians and some 400 Israelis.
Barker said about 18 West Bank settlements were currently listed on Facebook and that many more would be added in the future, giving users the option of choosing Israel or Palestine.
In a posting on a Facebook page used by settlers, Channah Lerman wrote: "Be aware! Should you restore the cities of Judea, Samaria (the West Bank) ... people will get more enraged than they are already. Palestine is not a country."
Palestinian users have set up their own Facebook group whose members threatened to cancel their accounts if Palestine was removed from the site. Called "If Palestine is removed from Facebook, I am closing my account," the group has over 4,700 members.
"We created this group to let our voices be heard not only among Facebook's management but all the users, and to tell everyone that Palestine is and will always be a country," Saif Qadoumi, the group's 20-year-old founder, told Reuters.
Sara Al, a group member, urged users in one entry to join a group called "It's not Israel, It's Palestine," saying it was a response to another group set up by Israeli users advocating the opposite message.
"Please join to beat another group called 'It's not Palestine, it's Israel' which has 13,000 members," she wrote.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War and annexed East Jerusalem in a move that has not won international recognition. It regards all of Jerusalem as its capital.
Facebook, for its part, identifies Jerusalem as part of Israel. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of the state they aspire to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Facebook Face-off.....
Facebook you surely are a disappointment. You had it right the first time but you caved under a threat from Israeli settlers offended by the suggestion that they actually live in Palestine rather than Israel. Guess what, they do live in Palestine! Tsk, tsk, tsk, how weak can you get.
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I curious as to where Palestine is on the map. When was it founded? Who was its first king or leader? What is its currency?
Thanks so much. Have a happy Purim.
The anti-Israeli biased spewed from this website is particularly nauseating.
Every article posted here is riddled with inaccuracies, with the nauseating anti-Israeli bias manifesting itself throughout this website. To even begin deconstructing the inarticulate, moronic ramblings on this site would take me all month. That is time which, quite frankly, I am not prepared to waste on apologists for terrorism.
Maybe the composer of this article would be inclined to answer the rather telling question posed by bar kochba? The patent lack of response tells us all we need to know about the blatant disregard for logic and facts by these anti-Israeli, pro-Palestinian terrorist apologists. The fact that these apologists descend to such depths of duplicity is actually rather sad.
I have also noticed another article on this site where, perplexingly, the writer was attempting to dichotomise terrorism from Islam. I’m afraid, the plethora of terrorist attacks perpetrated by Muslims world wide is profoundly enlightening. This may seem rather unpalatable to the likes of these terrorist apologists, but to even attempt to deny the inextricable link between Islam and terrorism would be as absurd as denying the link between dieing and having your head cut off. The propensity of Muslims to resort to terrorism is really quite tragic, but also an unassailable fact that needs to be addressed.
In that same article, the writer also attempted to equate Christianity with child molestation. Out of interest, would the writer be able to furnish me with a credible source, that would demonstrate a disproportionate amount of Christians – as opposed to non-Christians - perpetrate acts of child abuse. In the absence of such “evidence”, we can only conclude the writer is being disingenuous.
Oh, and finally, just in case you were wondering, I am not Jewish. However, you are patently a closet Muslim.
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