To the stunned approval of Israel and its supporters, Facebook last week shut down the official account of the ruling Palestinian faction, Fatah.
Someone apparently felt Fatah had violated Facebook community standards by posting an old photo of its former leader, Yasser Arafat, posing with a rifle next to the group’s current leader, Mahmoud Abbas.
On Wednesday, Facebook apologized for the “mishap” and reinstated the Fatah page. “The page was removed in error and restored as soon as we were able to investigate. We apologize for this mistake,” a Facebook spokesman was quoted.
Sadly, Fatah’s years of posts inciting murderous violence against Israeli Jews don’t seem to have triggered Facebook’s censors.
Is it within Facebook’s guidelines for Fatah to boast, as it did last August, of its killing of more than 11,000 Israelis, far more than any other Palestinian group?
Originally posted at Israel Today Magazine.