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Palestinian Media Watch today published an in-depth study, revealing that the lethal relationship between Fatah and Facebook continues in 2019.

Defining this relationship as the ‘Fatah-Facebook Terror Promotion Partnership’, PMW’s new report documents that Facebook continues to allow Fatah to use its Facebook page as a tool for its terror mission in 2019. Fatah uses Facebook as a prime vehicle to support and promote new terror in real time, as well as to honor the most notorious murderers from Palestinian Arab terror history. Significantly, while terror glorification and promotion were facilitated unknowingly by Facebook in 2018, after numerous emails and a long phone conversation between Facebook’s Brian Fishman and PMW, Facebook is now completely aware of the role it plays in Fatah’s terror promotion.

“Violence and terror are central to Fatah’s mission,” explains Nan Jacques Zilberdik, senior analyst at PMW and co-author of the report, “and Fatah uses its “Official Page” on Facebook to disseminate this to Palestinians. The Facebook platform is a central cog in Fatah’s mechanism to glorify - in real-time - the terror attacks in which Israelis are murdered and to promote terrorists as role models for today’s Palestinians.”

Facebook’s Community Standards state: “We [Facebook] do not allow any organizations or individuals that proclaim a violent mission or are engaged in violence, from having a presence on Facebook.”

“Ignoring its own rules,” explains co-author Itamar Marcus, “Fatah is using Facebook to ‘proclaim a violent mission’ and not only does Fatah not deny that it is ’engaged in violence,’ it is openly using Facebook to celebrate its involvement in violence. While terror glorification and promotion were facilitated unknowingly by Facebook in 2018, Facebook has chosen to be Fatah’s willing partner in 2019.”

PMW is calling on the social media giant to immediately and permanently close down Fatah’s official Facebook page, and end its willing partnership with terror promotion.

PMW has already brought the terror content of Fatah to Facebook attention. PMW’s report documenting terror promotion on Fatah’s Facebook page in 2018 was sent to senior Facebook officials in early 2019, and PMW director Itamar Marcus held a conversation with the Director of Facebook’s Global Counterterrorism Policy Team, Brian Fishman, showing how allowing Fatah to use Facebook was literally life threatening.

Marcus continued: “During our conversation, I emphasized that every time Fatah posts a new terror message on Facebook encouraging violence or presenting murderers as role models, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are given more motivation to kill Israelis. Having brought the issue to their attention, Facebook still chooses to do nothing to stop it. Their willingness to ignore the role they are playing in Fatah's terror promotion is incomprehensible.”

Alongside the release of the report, PMW is launching a social media campaign, demanding that Facebook immediately and permanently close down Fatah’s official page.