Today’s Top Stories
1. Turns out Facebook has been instructing its moderators to flout Holocaust-denial laws in a number of countries. The Guardian obtained internal internal documents from the social media giant that raise a lot of questions:
One 16-page training manual explains Facebook will only hide or remove Holocaust denial content in four countries – France, Germany, Israel and Austria. The document says this is not on grounds of taste, but because the company fears it might get sued.
“We believe our geo-blocking policy balances our belief in free expression with the practical need to respect local laws in certain sovereign nations in order to remain unblocked and avoid legal liability. We will only use geo-blocking when a country has taken sufficient steps to demonstrate that the local legislation permits censorship in that specific case,” it says.
“Some 14 countries have legislation on their books prohibiting the expression of claims that the volume of death and severity of the Holocaust is overestimated. Less than half the countries with these laws actually pursue it. We block on report only in those countries that actively pursue the issue with us.”
Other Facebook documents obtained by The Guardian zero in on moderators struggling to deal with online extremism, bullied children, “sextortion,” and more.
2. Dartmouth Professor N. Bruce Duthu withdrew from consideration for a senior faculty position amid the furor over his support for BDS and an academic boycott of Israel in particular. Details and background at The Dartmouth and Legal Insurrection.
See also the campus Students for Israel group’s open letter to administrators, written before Duthu pulled his hat from the ring.
3. Following up on President Donald Trump’s Mideast visit, envoy Jason Greenblatt is due to arrive in Israel on Thursday to follow up on efforts to restart peace talks. Meanwhile, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley is due to separately visit Israel in early June.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
4. HonestReporting’s mission continued today as participants learned about the evolution of Mideast warfare from experts like military analyst IDF Major (Res.) Elliot Chodoff and Maj. Simcha Shore, newly retired head of Israel’s drone program.
The day included a tour the Armored Corps Memorial Site and Museum at Latrun, and a visit to Tel Faher, site of a heavy infantry battle in the Six-Day War.
Visit our mission web site to find out more about next year’s special mission honoring Israel’s 70th birthday.
IDF maj (res) Elliot Chodoff shows #hrmission2017 how tanks changed defense in Israel @IDFSpokesperson @idfonline pic.twitter.com/jL9wL69JMi
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 24, 2017
Israel and the Palestinians
• Czech parliament called for sanctions against UNESCO over anti-Israel bias and urged Prague to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the Times of Israel reports. The non-binding resolution was passed on the occasion of Jerusalem Day.
• Three Palestinian suspects were arrested over last week’s near-lynching of an Israeli near the West Bank village of Huwara. Israeli security forces had previously arrested a Palestinian who is believed to have used his ambulance to block the Israeli’s car to prevent him from escaping a mob of around 200 people. Ynet coverage.
• Don’t you hate it when this happens to you?
Qatar said Wednesday its official state news agency had been hacked by an ‘unknown entity’, and subsequently carried false remarks attributed to the country’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, including a statement that his country’s relations with Israel were “good.” . . .
According to translations in the Hebrew-language press, the emir was quoted telling the Saudi-based al-Arabiya that Qatar’s ties to Israel were “good” and that he hoped to play a part in brokering a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians. He also made positive statements about Hamas, considered a terror group by Israel and the US, calling it the “official representative of Palestinians.”
• Why can’t Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas cut off the stipends to terrorists and their families now? According to the Jerusalem Post, his popularity is too low and the hunger-striking prisoners enjoy too much acclaim.
• Palestinians were underwhelmed with the presidential visit to Bethlehem, pointing out to the Los Angeles Times that Trump only spent about an hour in Bethlehem, didn’t visit the Church of the Nativity or make any reference to the two-state solution.
In Bethlehem, some Palestinians joked that the visit’s main achievement was that the municipality had cleaned the streets beforehand . . .
• It’s only an outrage when Israel does this: Egypt debates its own “muezzin bill” drafted to fight noise pollution during the upcoming month of Ramadan.
• French photographer Mathias Depardon and Reporters Without Borders are going to learn that hunger strikes only get international solidarity when the prisoners are Palestinian terrorists held in Israel.
Turkish authorities said they arrested Depardon for working without a valid press card, but have kept in detention rather than expel him despite a deportation order that was ordered earlier in May, AFP reports.
I hope Depardon and press freedom groups don’t hold their breath waiting for salt water challenges or other expressions of solidarity from people like South African anti-apartheid figures, UK students or 1,500 Moroccans.
https://twitter.com/RSF_EECA/status/867073730668892160
• Jerusalem, by the numbers, based on the Jerusalem Post.
– 266,000: overallpopulation in 1967
– 865,700: overall population in 2015
– 197,700: Jewish population in 1967
– 542,000: Jewish population in 2015
– 174%: growth of Jewish population
– 68,000: Arab population in 1967
– 323,700: Arab population in 2015
– 372%: growth of Arab population
– 38.1 sq. km: area of municipal Jerusalem on June 5, 1967
– 125.1 sq. km: area of municipal Jerusalem today
• Israel advocates are relieved after a labor union at a Canadian university failed to pass pro-BDS referendum.
Commentary/Analysis
• MEMRI spotted a notable column by Saudi journalist Mash’al Al-Sudairi telling Palestinian leaders they have missed too many opportunities to resolve the conflict with Israel, urging them to unify and make peace.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– David Horovitz: Simply by saying he loves it and stands with it, Trump wins over endlessly criticized Israel
– Barak Ravid: Trump’s Israel love offensive might carry a hefty price tag
– Gil Troy: Trump celebrated Jerusalem. Will you?
– Rosie Gray: Trump leaves Israel pushing peace, but staying vague
– Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror: Turkey’s rants, raves, and ramifications
– Yoram Ettinger: The 1967 war’s impact
Featured image: Hadas Parush/Flash90; Facebook CC0 Pixabay; Duthu via YouTube/Dartmouth;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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