Update: ADL is continuing to monitor Facebook for other problematic cause pages and continues to be in touch with Facebook officials on the issue.

__________

New York, NY, March 29, 2011 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today welcomed the decision by Facebook to remove an anti-Israel cause page calling for a "Third Palestinian Intifada" against the state of Israel and urged the social networking site to vigilantly monitor their pages for other groups that call for violence or terrorism against Jews and Israel.

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement: 

Facebook's decision to remove the cause page calling for a "Third Palestinian Intifada" is a welcome development.

 

We applaud Facebook's willingness to continue to engage and consider this important question and we deeply appreciate their responsiveness.  By taking this action, Facebook has now recognized an important standard to be applied when evaluating issues of non-compliance with its terms of service involving distinctions between incitement to violence and legitimate calls for collective expressions of opinion and action. As it continues to monitor its pages, Facebook should be able to apply this standard in response to complaints about other pages with similar content.  We hope that they will continue to vigilantly monitor their pages for other groups that call for violence or terrorism against Jews and Israel.

 

We look forward to continuing our dialogue with Facebook on issues of mutual concern, including hate speech, Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism.