Apple Defers to Israel: Removes ‘Third Intifada’ App

After much controversy, Apple has decided to pull its “3rd intifada” iPhone application as it “violates the developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people.”  Reportedly, the 3rd intifada app provided users with information about when and where violent anti-Israel rallies and activities would take place.

Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein sent a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Tuesday, imploring him to remove the app from circulation.  Once its removal was confirmed, Jpost reported that Edelstein praised the company for doing so:

The computer giant Apple’s decision to remove an application from its online store called “3rd intifada” is an additional step in “preventing hostile elements – which are frequently tainted by anti-Semitism – from spreading incitement via the new media,” Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein said Thursday.

While the removal of the 3rd intifada iPhone app is a step in the right direction, the app itself is only one small part of the larger Third Palestinian Intifada media suite, that includes a dedicated website, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter pages.

The Blaze recently reported on Facebook's Third Palestinian Intifada page that still remains on the site despite Facebook officials' claims that it removed the page back in late March.

In fact, JPost still reports with the assumption that Facebook removed its Third Palestinian Intifada page:

Earlier in the year, public outcry against a Facebook page carrying the same title was also removed after company heads decided that the page’s creator had posted incitement to violence against Israelis and Jews.

Edelstein claimed that both the Apple application and Facebook page were started by the same organization, seeking the same goals.

The Independent also operates under the same assumption:

Israel recently scored another success in cyberspace when it convinced Facebook to pull down a Palestinian Third Intifada page calling for an uprising against Israel. The page had attracted more than 350,000 fans.

Facebook, whose social networking site has played an instrumental role in galvanising protests across the Arab world in recent months, initially refused, buckling only after Israel appealed personally to founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Yet as we now know, the Third Palestinian Intifada Facebook page is still alive and well, and has picked up roughly another 40,000 members. In tow are numerous other intifada adjunct pages on the site. Why no other media outlet seems to notice the newer, stronger Third Palestinian Intifada pages on Facebook, remains a mystery.

Hopefully, Apple will be more consistent, and vigilant than Facebook, and won't allow another vitriolic "3rd intifada" app to crop up in the old one's place.