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What About MAGA In Israel? Facebook Temporarily Suspends Netanyahu For Hate Speech

What About MAGA In Israel? Facebook Temporarily Suspends Netanyahu For Hate Speech

Netanyahu
President Donald Trump listens as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the White House, March 25, 2019. Trump signed an official proclamation formally recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

On the eve of Israel’s Sept. 17 legislative elections, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting for his political survival.

He has been campaigning hard for nationalist votes “with feisty language and hard-line promises,” AP reported. Posters of U.S. President Donald Trump shaking Netanyahu’s hand have popped up around Israel.

Some of that language got Netanyahu in trouble with social media.

On Thursday, Facebook said that that it had suspended Netanyahu’s automated chat function for 24 hours because of a violation of the company’s hate speech policy.

The page asked voters to prevent the establishment of “a dangerous leftist government … a weak leftist government formed by … Arabs who want to destroy us all — women, children and men.” The post caused an uproar among opposition politicians, Associated Press reported.

Netanyahu denied he wrote the post, saying it was a staffer’s mistake and the post was removed, according to an interview with Kan Reshet Bet radio.

One of the contesting parties in tomorrow’s election is the Joint List alliance, made up of four ideologically diverse Arab Israeli parties. The Joint List was dissolved ahead of the April 2019 elections but reformed ahead of tomorrow’s election. Together, the List had 10 seats on the 120-member Knesset, according to TimesofIsrael.

Ayman Odeh, chairman of the Arab Joint List, contacted Facebook immediately and asked it to remove the messages and punish Netanyahu, according to the Middle East Monitor.

Israel has never had a better friend than Trump in the White House, Netanyahu has said.

Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, overturning decades of U.S. foreign policy. He had Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visit the Western Wall with Netanyahu — an unprecedented move since foreign dignitaries usually visit alone due to diplomatic sensitivity of the Old City of Jerusalem. And Trump designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terror organization — the first foreign governmental body to make the list, CNN reported.

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In August, Israel initially blocked two Muslim U.S. congresswomen from visiting the country, but changed its position in the face of a backlash, saying it would let at least one of the two lawmakers in. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Michigan Democrat and the daughter of Palestinian, immigrants called off her visit to the West Bank where she was planning to visit her grandmother.

At Trump’s request, Israel denied Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota permission to enter Israel.

The U.S. president is far more popular in Israel than he is in the U.S. Only the most left-wing political parties in Israel have been willing to criticize Trump until now. Last month when Trump said Jews who voted Democrat were disloyal to Israel, most mainstream politicians in Israel were silent.

Israel is one of the few developed countries where opinion about the U.S. has improved since Trump took office, New York Times reported. More than 75 percent of U.S. Jews voted for Democrats in the 2018 midterm elections, but a vocal minority of Jews in the U.S. strongly support Trump. By contrast, 69 percent of Israelis have confidence in Trump, up from 49 percent who had confidence in Barack Obama in 2015, according to the Pew Research Center. A vocal minority of Jews in Israel don’t like the U.S. president.

“The American president appears to support the Jews of Israel more than the Jews of the United States,” wrote Jane Eisner in a guest column for Time.

Netanyahu’s campaign tried to distance the prime minister from the Facebook message, claiming that an employee published it without Netanyahu’s permission and it was deleted as soon as Netanyahu knew about it.

Social media responses to Netanyahu’s suspension ranged from praise for Facebook — “Cool. Do Trump next” — to not so much: “Social Media are mediating our politics, setting the boundaries of debate. The employees of these corporations are becoming the New Fourth Estate.”

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