While Israel is still working behind the scenes to convince UN member countries not to support the Palestinian Authority's planned declaration of independence in the UN General Assembly next month, Arabs in the PA, along with radical leftists and anarchists from around the world, are busy preparing for mass demonstrations and worse – using the same social media tools that were used to most recently organize the riots tearing Britain apart.
There are now dozens of Facebook groups supporting the PA's plans, including several set up by the Fatah terror group itself. One group, called “September – a Right and an Achievement” - lists the history of the PA's efforts to convince the 193 UN member countries to support its plans, and urges its many members to contact their government officials and convince them to support the PA's statehood bid.
Another Facebook group, called “Countdown to Palestine's Independence,” calls on the U.S. not to veto the PA's statehood bid if and when it reaches the UN Security Council. The page states that this is “America's chance to look at the Muslim world as an equal. Without firing a shot, the U.S. will be able to disarm Hamas,” the page says. Other pages on Facebook emphasize the topics of human rights, historic rights, and legal rights, all demanding that the PA's independence bid be supported.
While the Facebook terms of service do not allow for direct calls for violence, there is little Twitter administrators can do to prevent violent “flash mobs” from forming in minutes; the instant social networking communications platform, for example, has been accused of providing a forum for marauding gangs in several places in the U.S. to descend on stores and strip them of products within minutes.
Police in Britain said that rioters in this week's unrest were using the platform to quickly organize mobs to loot and burn down stores, but Twitter said Wednesday that it would not close the accounts of rioters found to be using the service for such purposes, saying that “freedom of expression is essential.”
In a statement, the company said that “we don't always agree with the things people choose to tweet, but we keep the information flowing irrespective of any view we may have about the content.”
Pro-PA groups have recently begun establishing accounts on Twitter and have in recent weeks begun aggressively tweeting calls for support for the PA's bid, with many of the postings containing links to web pages that make tacit and open threats of what is likely to happen if the UN does not grant the PA its wish.
Many of the tweets – as well as links on Facebook – lead surfers to YouTube videos, some of which include violent scenes, including the infamous photo of an Arab holding up his bloody hands after the murderous lynchings of IDF soldiers Vadim Nurzhitz and Yossi Avrahami.