Google Denies Claim That It Will Censor Palestinian YouTube Videos on Israel's Behalf; Israel Prevents Free Speech by Shutting Down Second Palestinian Radio Station

Israeli security detain The Associated Press photographer Nasser Shiyoukhi during a Palestinian protest in Yatta in the West Bank on Saturday. Shiyoukhi was released without charge after Saturday’s incident. (photo credit: AP Photo)

Google Denies Israel’s Claims That It Will Allow Censorship Of Palestinian Videos

The Internet giant says the meeting with Israeli officials was simply “one of many that we have with policymakers from different countries to explain our policies on controversial content.” 

December 1, 2015

Mint Press News - After a misleading press release suggested they’d bowed to pressure from apartheid Israeli officials, Google representatives denied that they agreed to allow censorship of Palestinian videos on YouTube and other Google websites.

The news of Israeli officials’ interactions with Google came after Palestinians have used YouTube to expose violence by illegal Israeli settlers and members of the Israeli Defense Forces, including planting knives on executed Palestinian teenagers.

According to Saed Bannoura, a reporter from the International Middle East Media Center, a Hebrew-language press release published last week on Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website claimed that ministry officials met with YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki and Jennifer Oztzistzki, director of Public Policy for Google, who agreed to allow the censorship of videos published by Palestinians on YouTube and other websites controlled by the Internet giant.

However, after the agreement was widely reported in the media, a Google representative issued the following statement:

“Following media reports about a meeting last week between Google / YouTube executives and the Israeli Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, we wanted to clarify that this meeting was one of many that we have with policymakers from different countries to explain our policies on controversial content, flagging and removals. 

The Israeli Ministry for Foreign Affairs has corrected its original announcement which, in error, suggested there had been an agreement with Google to establish ‘a mechanism to monitor online materials.’”

Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, claimed Palestinians are using social media to “indoctrinate” children, according to a Nov. 24 press release on the Israeli ministry’s website. She continued: “We are engaged daily in confronting incitement to violence, a task which can benefit greatly from the cooperation of those companies that are involved in social media.”

In 2008, YouTube banned videos which incite others to commit acts of violence, regardless of the nationality of the person publishing the video. Activists were alarmed by the news that Google might have granted special digital abilities to Israeli officials, as Palestinians more frequently use YouTube and other social media sites to expose how the Israeli army attempts to  justify the violence it commits against Palestinian protesters.

Writing on Thursday for his blog Tikun Olam, Richard Silverstein, an Israel-Palestine affairs analyst for MintPress News, cautioned against jumping to conclusions about Israel’s pronouncements of impending Internet censorship.

“There are so many problems with Hotovely’s claims, it’s hard to know where to start,” Silverstein wrote, adding:

“I strongly doubt Google has agreed to any formal arrangement that could lead to restricting video content. But if they have, it would be very important to know this.

Israel shuts second Hebron radio station

November 20, 2015

AFP - Israeli forces Saturday raided and shut down a Palestinian radio station accused of incitement in the West Bank city of Hebron, the army said, in the second such case this month.

Soldiers entered the offices of Al-Khalil radio overnight and handed the station a six-month order to close, said Ezz Haddad, its head of programming.

"Al-Khalil radio station has repeatedly broadcast content which promotes and encourages terror and acts of violence against Israeli civilians and security forces," the army said in a statement.

The station's Facebook page posted pictures of heavily armed Israeli forces arriving at the offices and of alleged damage.

"They took the computers, the communication equipment, everything," Haddad told AFP.

The station was offline on Saturday morning.

Israel's civil administration, a unit of the defence ministry, said Al-Khalil had broadcast "lies about Palestinians being executed and abducted by security forces".

It also cited calls to "stab a soldier".

In a recording provided to journalists that was allegedly played on the channel, a singer urges listeners to "lock and load your machinegun and move forward" and to show "no mercy".

Haddad denied claims of incitement.

Earlier this month, Israeli forces raided the offices of Al-Hurria radio station, also in Hebron, forcing it to close for six months.

In a separate incident Saturday, police arrested a Palestinian woman, accusing her of planning to carry out an anti-Israeli stabbing attack of the type which have been common over the past month.

Police spokeswoman Luba Samri said border police found a knife on a 27-year-old woman near Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque, "in what appeared to be an attempt to carry out a stabbing operation against forces there."

Two Palestinians from the Hebron area carried out separate attacks in Tel Aviv and the Etzion settlement bloc Thursday, resulting in five deaths, in one of the deadliest days since an October 1 upsurge of violence.

The army arrested 16 Palestinians in Hebron on Friday night, a military spokeswoman said.

The wave of violence, much of which has been focused in and around Hebron, has left 86 dead on the Palestinian side including an Arab Israeli, as well as 15 Israelis, an American and an Eritrean.

Many of the Palestinians killed have been alleged attackers, while others were shot dead during clashes with Israeli forces.