Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu listens to Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan (R) during a press conference on October 8, 2015, at his office in Jerusalem. (Photo: AFP)
Israel's Minister of Internal Security on Saturday accused Facebook and its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, of not doing enough to prevent incitement against Israel and said the social network was "sabotaging" Israeli police work.
Israel has in the past said Facebook is used to encourage attacks and the government is drafting legislation to enable it to order Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other social media to remove online postings it deems incite terrorism.
But the comments made by Gilad Erdan, a cabinet minister in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition that oversees law enforcement, were particularly biting.
He said Zuckerman was responsible for Facebook policy and called on "the citizens of Israel to flood him in every possible place with the demand to monitor the platform he established and from which he earns billions".
A spokesman for Facebook in Israel said the company was not commenting on the minister's assertions.
During an interview on Channel 2 television, Erdan said, "Facebook today, which brought an amazing, positive revolution to the world, sadly, we see this since the rise of Daesh (Islamic State) and the wave of terror, it has simply become a monster."
"Facebook today sabotages, it should be known, sabotages the work of the Israeli police, because when the Israeli police approach them, and it is regarding a resident of Judea and Samaria, Facebook does not cooperate," he said, referring to the area of the West Bank.
"It also sets a very high bar for removing inciteful content and posts," Erdan said.
Since the start of the wave of violence last October, Israeli occupation forces have killed at least 214 Palestinians. Meanwhile, stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks by frustrated and unarmed Palestinians have killed 34 Israelis.
The current wave of protests by Palestinians and repression by Israeli occupation forces started in late July when toddler Ali Dawabsha was burned to death and three other Palestinians were severely injured after their house in the occupied West Bank was set on fire by Israeli settlers.
Settlement-building, racial discrimination, confiscation of identity cards, long queues at checkpoints, as well as daily clashes and the desecration of Al-Aqsa mosque, describe Palestinians' daily suffering.
The anger of Palestinian residents of Jerusalem has increased in the last three years after the Israeli authorities allowed increasing numbers of Jewish settlers to storm the Al-Aqsa mosque.
*The story was edited by Ahram Online.
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