Israel demands deletion of anti-Israel content from Facebook

Israeli cabinet ministers said Wednesday they have requested Facebook to delete "inciting" posts against the country within 24 hours, as part of its struggle to quell a nine-month Palestinian uprising.

Israeli Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan have met with visiting top Facebook officials, according to a statement by their offices.

Social media have been used as a primary tool for "inciting terror acts" during the recent wave of violence, the statement said.

The meeting was part of a move by Shaked and Erdan to draft a new bill to remove "terror" content from social networking sites.

Under the bill, warnings will be sent to social media providers which host "forbidden content," including posts that encourage attacks against Israelis.

If the providers do not remove the content, a court could issue a mandatory order to do so.

Erdan, vowing to act quickly to get the bill passed, said he had instructed the police to focus on detecting "inciting contents on social media that encourage terror and violence."

Israel's broad definition for "incitement" involves much of the Palestinian resistance to Israeli occupation, as the recently-approved Anti-Terror Act forbids membership or any other connection to groups announced as a "terror organization," including Hamas and the Palestinian Islamist movement.

At least 205 Palestinians and 32 Israelis have been killed since the Palestinian uprising began in mid-September.

Israel accuses the Palestinian National Authority of "inciting" the violence, while the Palestinians said it is the result of 49 years of Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, where more than five million Palestinians live and hope to establish an independent Palestinian state. Endit