Israel to YouTube and Facebook: remove videos that incite violence

Scene from Hamas music video. YOUTUBE SCREENSHOT

Israel has written a letter to YouTube and Facebook that calls on the companies to remove videos the Jewish state says have been inciting Palestinian violence. 

“The videos depict recent terror attacks, praise the assailants, and present Jews and Israelis in a hateful and racist manner, and since their publishing, three more attacks have taken place so far,” a letter from the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.

Hamas uploaded a video earlier this week encouraging Palestinians to launch knife attacks on Jews. The video depicts a Palestinian man stabbing someone dressed as a religious Jew and called on Palestinians to launch a new intifadah.

On Wednesday, YouTube pulled the video from Hamas’s channel on the video site, citing a violation of hate speech.

“YouTube has clear policies that prohibit content like gratuitous violence, hate speech, and incitement to commit violent acts, and we remove videos violating these policies when flagged by our users,” said Google spokesman Paul Solomon, Reuters reported.