Israel charges eight Palestinians over Facebook posts

An Israeli court yesterday indicted eight Palestinians from East Jerusalem for “inciting” anti-Jewish violence and supporting “terror” in postings on Facebook, an Israeli Ministry of Justice statement said.

The eight men, aged 18-45, were charged at the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court with “incitement to violence or terror and supporting a terrorist group” on Facebook, the statement said.

Commenting on incidents which recently took place in Jerusalem, the men posted remarks criticising Israeli violence and hailing Palestinians facing it, attempting to deter the daily desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque and stopping continuous aggression on Palestinian residents in the city.

The court said that the men “directly called for violence and terror against [Jewish] citizens and [Israeli] security forces and praised, encouraged and supported these deeds and their perpetrators” on the internet, the statement said.

Some of the remarks, which were posted online, read: “Kidnapping [Israeli] soldiers is a good thing”, “Zionists: you have to flee because you will soon be ran over by a car”.

They also posted words expressing hope that a right-wing Jewish activist, who survived a claimed assassination attempt in October, would face a painful death.

According to the Israeli police, the arrest of the eight Palestinian men was the biggest operation yet aimed at fighting incitement to violence on social networks.