21 dec 2018
Extremist right wing Israeli Member of Knesset Bezalel Smotrich has called for illegal Jewish settlers to attack Palestinians, asserting that the lives of Jews are more valuable than those of Palestinians.
On his twitter account, Smotrich wrote: “I call on my heroic [settler] friends and pioneers to come out tonight and close Route 60 along its entire length to the movement of Arab vehicles.
“If there are [Palestinian resistance] attacks [against illegal Jewish settlers], there will be no Arabs on the roads. Our lives precede their quality of life.”
Consequently, Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din demanded that an investigation be opened into the Jewish Home politician, as he tweeted a call for settler violence against Palestinians.
The organisation submitted this in an official request to Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, asking that he open a criminal probe into Smotrich’s call for violence against Palestinians.
According to Days of Palestine, illegal Jewish-Israeli settlers indeed responded to Smotrich’s tweet, gathering in the streets and attacking Palestinians.
Yesh Din says that, in the 24 hours after Smotrich’s tweet, it documented 25 attacks carried out by settlers against Palestinians.
The attacks included the firing of live bullets at Palestinian homes, in the nearby villages of Ein Yabrud and Beitin, and the stoning of cars at Huwara and Kfar Qaddum junctions, all near Ofra, on Route 60 of the occupied West Bank.
On his twitter account, Smotrich wrote: “I call on my heroic [settler] friends and pioneers to come out tonight and close Route 60 along its entire length to the movement of Arab vehicles.
“If there are [Palestinian resistance] attacks [against illegal Jewish settlers], there will be no Arabs on the roads. Our lives precede their quality of life.”
Consequently, Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din demanded that an investigation be opened into the Jewish Home politician, as he tweeted a call for settler violence against Palestinians.
The organisation submitted this in an official request to Israeli Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, asking that he open a criminal probe into Smotrich’s call for violence against Palestinians.
According to Days of Palestine, illegal Jewish-Israeli settlers indeed responded to Smotrich’s tweet, gathering in the streets and attacking Palestinians.
Yesh Din says that, in the 24 hours after Smotrich’s tweet, it documented 25 attacks carried out by settlers against Palestinians.
The attacks included the firing of live bullets at Palestinian homes, in the nearby villages of Ein Yabrud and Beitin, and the stoning of cars at Huwara and Kfar Qaddum junctions, all near Ofra, on Route 60 of the occupied West Bank.
17 dec 2018
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel with his son Yair in 2015. Facebook removed several posts by Yair Netanyahu, now 27, about Palestinians and Muslims.
In a Facebook post a few days ago, one of the Israeli prime minister’s sons said he hoped the deaths of two Israeli soldiers killed by a Palestinian gunman in the West Bank would be “avenged” and said, “There will never be peace with the monsters in human form known since 1964 as ‘Palestinians.’” In other posts, Yair Netanyahu, the older son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said he would prefer an Israel without any Muslims and mused that no attacks occurred “in Iceland and Japan where coincidentally there are no Muslims.” |
Facebook removed the posts after a flood of complaints, saying they “included hate speech” and clearly violated the community standards. On Sunday, after Yair Netanyahu reposted a screenshot of one of the offending posts online and called on people to share it, the social networking giant suspended his account for 24 hours.
So he took to Twitter.
There he reposted a diatribe he had written against Facebook, describing it as “thought police” and protesting that it hosted “endless pages that call for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews.”
So he took to Twitter.
There he reposted a diatribe he had written against Facebook, describing it as “thought police” and protesting that it hosted “endless pages that call for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews.”
16 dec 2018
An Israeli court sentenced, on Sunday morning, the mother of a Palestinian, who was killed by the army last year, to eleven months in prison for what the military prosecution described as “incitement on social media.”
Attorney Mohammad Mahmoud of the Palestinian Detainees’ Committee, said the court sentenced Susan Abu Ghannam to eleven months in prison, for posting statements on Facebook, after the death of her son.
The court deemed the posts as incitement, and passed its sentence on the woman, from at-Tur neighborhood, east of Jerusalem’s Old City.
She was taken prisoner last August, after dozens of soldiers and officers invaded her home, and conducted violent searches, leading to damage.
It is worth mentioning that Suzan’s son, Mohammad Hasan Abu Ghannam, 20, was killed on by Israeli soldiers, July 21, 2017, during protests that took place after the army invaded at-Tour neighborhood, in East Jerusalem.
Eyewitnesses said that the soldiers surrounded the Palestinian after shooting him, and that he bled to death when the army prevented Palestinian medics from approaching him.
Attorney Mohammad Mahmoud of the Palestinian Detainees’ Committee, said the court sentenced Susan Abu Ghannam to eleven months in prison, for posting statements on Facebook, after the death of her son.
The court deemed the posts as incitement, and passed its sentence on the woman, from at-Tur neighborhood, east of Jerusalem’s Old City.
She was taken prisoner last August, after dozens of soldiers and officers invaded her home, and conducted violent searches, leading to damage.
It is worth mentioning that Suzan’s son, Mohammad Hasan Abu Ghannam, 20, was killed on by Israeli soldiers, July 21, 2017, during protests that took place after the army invaded at-Tour neighborhood, in East Jerusalem.
Eyewitnesses said that the soldiers surrounded the Palestinian after shooting him, and that he bled to death when the army prevented Palestinian medics from approaching him.
8 dec 2018
The Palestinian social media rights group, Sada Social, on Saturday condemned the unjust censorship campaign launched by different social media networks against Palestinian content.
Sada Social said in a statement that the Twitter administration has recently removed and blocked many pages and accounts over postings supporting the Palestinian cause.
The center said that the campaign included the deletion of tweets supporting the Palestinian resistance or talking about the latest Israeli raid into the Gaza Strip.
The campaign targeted the pages of al-Qassam Brigades, the Palestinian Information Center, and Quds News Network, as well as dozens of Palestinian activists.
Sada Social added that the Facebook administration has also removed dozens of posts that criticized the US draft resolution condemning the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, at the United Nations.
Sada Social was launched in September 2017, and it is concerned with enriching the Palestinian content on the internet, especially on social media platforms, and monitoring the violations committed against this content by different parties.
Sada Social said in a statement that the Twitter administration has recently removed and blocked many pages and accounts over postings supporting the Palestinian cause.
The center said that the campaign included the deletion of tweets supporting the Palestinian resistance or talking about the latest Israeli raid into the Gaza Strip.
The campaign targeted the pages of al-Qassam Brigades, the Palestinian Information Center, and Quds News Network, as well as dozens of Palestinian activists.
Sada Social added that the Facebook administration has also removed dozens of posts that criticized the US draft resolution condemning the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, at the United Nations.
Sada Social was launched in September 2017, and it is concerned with enriching the Palestinian content on the internet, especially on social media platforms, and monitoring the violations committed against this content by different parties.
29 nov 2018
Amnesty International has called on the Israeli ministry of military affairs to suspend the license of a cyber firm which was reportedly in talks with Saudi Arabia, to sell super-stealth spyware to the country and amid revelations that the company’s software had been used in “a series of egregious human rights violations.”
Amnesty International Israel said in a statement, according to Press TV/Al Ray, that Israeli cyberarms firm NSO Group “has gone out of control.”
Sources in the Israeli ministry later said it was strict about granting licenses according to the law, and that they could not discuss the existence of NSO’s license, for security reasons.
Amnesty Israel rejected the response and said it intended to pursue legal action.
The development came on the heels of a report published, by Haaretz daily newspaper, stating that NSO representatives offered Pegasus 3 technology to high-profile Saudi officials back in 2017.
The report, citing a complaint filed with Israeli police, by an unnamed European businessman, noted that the Saudi officials included former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal and Nasser al-Qahtani, who presented himself as the deputy of the current intelligence chief.
The businessman insists that the Pegasus 3 affair began when he was contacted by an Israeli man dealing in cyber-defense technologies and identified only as W., who asked him to use his connections in the Persian Gulf states to help do business in the region.
During a series of meetings, Saudi officials presented a list of software they sought to obtain to hack into the phones of pro-democracy campaigners, Muslim ministers and intellectuals, in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.
In the summer of 2017, W. negotiated a deal to sell NSO’s Pegasus 3 system to the Saudis for $55 million.
Despite an oral agreement with W., the European businessman says that he started ignoring his phone calls when he asked for his 5-percent commission ($2.75 million). The businessman filed the complaint in April of this year and has since been interrogated by the Israeli police’s fraud department and contacted by income tax authorities.
Earlier this month, former US National Security Agency contractor and whistle-blower Edward Snowden said that Saudi Arabia may have used software made by an Israeli cyber firm to track prominent dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed after visiting the kingdom’s consulate in Turkey’s largest city of Istanbul, in early October.
Addressing a conference in Tel Aviv via a video call from Russia, Snowden said Pegasus spyware was used to track opponents.
“The Saudis, of course, knew that Khashoggi was going to go to the consulate, as he got an appointment. But how did they know his intention and plans?” he pointed out.
Snowden went on to say that the smartphone of one of Khashoggi’s friends, who was living in exile in Canada, had been infected with Pegasus spyware.
He said that the software allowed the Saudis to collect information about Khashoggi.
“The truth is that they pursued some of his friends through a program written by the Israeli company,” Snowden pointed out.
Khashoggi was killed on October 2, after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Once inside, he was immediately strangled and then dismembered, according to the Istanbul Prosecutor’s office.
A senior Turkish official told The Washington Post, on November 2, that the slain journalist’s body was destroyed in acid either on the grounds of the Saudi consulate or at the nearby residence of the Saudi consul general.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that biological evidence discovered in the diplomatic mission garden supports the theory that Khashoggi’s body was disposed of close to where he was killed and dismembered.
“Khashoggi’s body was not in need of burying,” the official was quoted as saying.
Khashoggi, a distinguished commentator on Saudi affairs who wrote for The Washington Post’s Global Opinions section, had lived in self-imposed exile in the US since September 2017, when he left Saudi Arabia over fears of the Riyadh regime’s crackdown on critical voices.
His death has subjected the Riyadh regime and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to strict scrutiny.
Hatice Cengiz, the journalist’s fiancée, has accused Saudi officials of a massive cover-up.
Amnesty International Israel said in a statement, according to Press TV/Al Ray, that Israeli cyberarms firm NSO Group “has gone out of control.”
Sources in the Israeli ministry later said it was strict about granting licenses according to the law, and that they could not discuss the existence of NSO’s license, for security reasons.
Amnesty Israel rejected the response and said it intended to pursue legal action.
The development came on the heels of a report published, by Haaretz daily newspaper, stating that NSO representatives offered Pegasus 3 technology to high-profile Saudi officials back in 2017.
The report, citing a complaint filed with Israeli police, by an unnamed European businessman, noted that the Saudi officials included former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal and Nasser al-Qahtani, who presented himself as the deputy of the current intelligence chief.
The businessman insists that the Pegasus 3 affair began when he was contacted by an Israeli man dealing in cyber-defense technologies and identified only as W., who asked him to use his connections in the Persian Gulf states to help do business in the region.
During a series of meetings, Saudi officials presented a list of software they sought to obtain to hack into the phones of pro-democracy campaigners, Muslim ministers and intellectuals, in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.
In the summer of 2017, W. negotiated a deal to sell NSO’s Pegasus 3 system to the Saudis for $55 million.
Despite an oral agreement with W., the European businessman says that he started ignoring his phone calls when he asked for his 5-percent commission ($2.75 million). The businessman filed the complaint in April of this year and has since been interrogated by the Israeli police’s fraud department and contacted by income tax authorities.
Earlier this month, former US National Security Agency contractor and whistle-blower Edward Snowden said that Saudi Arabia may have used software made by an Israeli cyber firm to track prominent dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed after visiting the kingdom’s consulate in Turkey’s largest city of Istanbul, in early October.
Addressing a conference in Tel Aviv via a video call from Russia, Snowden said Pegasus spyware was used to track opponents.
“The Saudis, of course, knew that Khashoggi was going to go to the consulate, as he got an appointment. But how did they know his intention and plans?” he pointed out.
Snowden went on to say that the smartphone of one of Khashoggi’s friends, who was living in exile in Canada, had been infected with Pegasus spyware.
He said that the software allowed the Saudis to collect information about Khashoggi.
“The truth is that they pursued some of his friends through a program written by the Israeli company,” Snowden pointed out.
Khashoggi was killed on October 2, after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
Once inside, he was immediately strangled and then dismembered, according to the Istanbul Prosecutor’s office.
A senior Turkish official told The Washington Post, on November 2, that the slain journalist’s body was destroyed in acid either on the grounds of the Saudi consulate or at the nearby residence of the Saudi consul general.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that biological evidence discovered in the diplomatic mission garden supports the theory that Khashoggi’s body was disposed of close to where he was killed and dismembered.
“Khashoggi’s body was not in need of burying,” the official was quoted as saying.
Khashoggi, a distinguished commentator on Saudi affairs who wrote for The Washington Post’s Global Opinions section, had lived in self-imposed exile in the US since September 2017, when he left Saudi Arabia over fears of the Riyadh regime’s crackdown on critical voices.
His death has subjected the Riyadh regime and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to strict scrutiny.
Hatice Cengiz, the journalist’s fiancée, has accused Saudi officials of a massive cover-up.
20 nov 2018
Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Information launches DigiTell campaign
Anti-Israeli groups have for years been using the UN's Universal Children's Day to spread misinformation about Israel’s alleged mistreatment of Palestinian children, but this year a social media campaign led by Ministry of Strategic Affairs is combating the phenomenon.
The United Nations' Universal Children's Day has for years been exploited by pro-Palestinian groups to spread misinformation and construct a narrative about Israel’s inhumane treatment of children in its military operations.
This year the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Information, headed by Gilad Erdan, has decided to fight back against the propaganda. The ministry and DigiTell—a civic networking platform connecting pro-Israel organizations around the world—launched a large-scale social media campaign with the goal of fighting the anti-Israeli agenda.
The campaign provides evidence that children in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority are used for incitement, terrorism and violence. In addition, the campaign highlights the threat posed by the terror organizations in the strip to Israeli children living in communities near the Gaza border.
Ido Daniel, head of the digital department at the ministry, said this year they were determined not to let misinformation influence the international public opinion on Israel.
"For years, the Palestinian Authority has been using the Universal Children's Day and succeeded in influencing the minds of average citizens all across Europe … This year we exposed the truth—we translated Hamas's school curriculum and propaganda, and presented evidence of military training being conducted at kindergartens," he said.
The campaign, which began a few days ago, culminated on the Universal Children's Day on November 19. Campaign participants are believed to have reached at least 10 million people, most of whom live in European countries.
In total, more than 50 messages, including memes and videos, had been spread in five languages: English, Spanish, German, French and Hebrew.
Minister Erdan said the campaign was intended to put an end to the exploitation of children.
"The Palestinian Authority and Hamas are cynically and maliciously using children both as human shields and as means of blackmailing Israel. Our campaign calls on the world to protect the exploited children and stop the hypocrisy leveled at Israel," he said.
Anti-Israeli groups have for years been using the UN's Universal Children's Day to spread misinformation about Israel’s alleged mistreatment of Palestinian children, but this year a social media campaign led by Ministry of Strategic Affairs is combating the phenomenon.
The United Nations' Universal Children's Day has for years been exploited by pro-Palestinian groups to spread misinformation and construct a narrative about Israel’s inhumane treatment of children in its military operations.
This year the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Information, headed by Gilad Erdan, has decided to fight back against the propaganda. The ministry and DigiTell—a civic networking platform connecting pro-Israel organizations around the world—launched a large-scale social media campaign with the goal of fighting the anti-Israeli agenda.
The campaign provides evidence that children in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority are used for incitement, terrorism and violence. In addition, the campaign highlights the threat posed by the terror organizations in the strip to Israeli children living in communities near the Gaza border.
Ido Daniel, head of the digital department at the ministry, said this year they were determined not to let misinformation influence the international public opinion on Israel.
"For years, the Palestinian Authority has been using the Universal Children's Day and succeeded in influencing the minds of average citizens all across Europe … This year we exposed the truth—we translated Hamas's school curriculum and propaganda, and presented evidence of military training being conducted at kindergartens," he said.
The campaign, which began a few days ago, culminated on the Universal Children's Day on November 19. Campaign participants are believed to have reached at least 10 million people, most of whom live in European countries.
In total, more than 50 messages, including memes and videos, had been spread in five languages: English, Spanish, German, French and Hebrew.
Minister Erdan said the campaign was intended to put an end to the exploitation of children.
"The Palestinian Authority and Hamas are cynically and maliciously using children both as human shields and as means of blackmailing Israel. Our campaign calls on the world to protect the exploited children and stop the hypocrisy leveled at Israel," he said.
