By Joseph Nasr
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -
Complaints by Jewish settlers angry
at Facebook for listing them as residents of "Palestine"
prompted the popular social networking Web site to allow users
to switch themselves back to Israel.
Facebook users living in Maale Adumim, Ariel and other
large Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank protested
when the site automatically listed their hometowns as being in
"Palestine." A group of settlers accused the California-based
company of having a political agenda.
"I was surprised and disappointed to find that my hometown
of Ariel is listed in Facebook as being part of a country
called 'Palestine,"' wrote Ari Zimmerman in a posting on
Facebook. "I am a citizen of Israel, as are all of the other
residents of Ariel. We do not live in 'Palestine', nor does
anyone else."
Brandee Barker, Facebook's director of communications, said
users living in major settlement blocs can now choose between
being listed as residents of Israel or Palestine.
"Facebook users in the Israeli West Bank settlements of
Maale Adumim, Beitar Illit, and Ariel can now choose between
Israel and Palestine," Barker said last week in an email to
Reuters.
Israel wants to hold onto Maale Adumim and other major
settlement blocs under any future peace deal with the
Palestinians.
"We also offer Hebron in both Israel and Palestine," Barker
said, referring to the major West Bank city which is home to
about 150,000 Palestinians and some 400 Jewish settlers.
Barker said about 18 West Bank settlements were currently
listed on Facebook and that many more would be added in the
future, giving users the option of choosing Israel or
Palestine.
In a posting on a Facebook page used by settlers, Channah
Lerman wrote: "Be aware! Should you restore the cities of
Judea, Samaria (the West Bank) ... people will get more enraged
than they are already. Palestine is not a country."
RIVAL GROUPS
Palestinian users have set up their own Facebook group
whose members threatened to cancel their accounts if Palestine
was removed from the site. Called "If Palestine is removed from
Facebook, I am closing my account," the group has over 4,700
members.
"We created this group to let our voices be heard not only
among Facebook's management but all the users, and to tell
everyone that Palestine is and will always be a country," Saif
Qadoumi, the group's 20-year-old founder, told Reuters.
Sara Al, a group member, urged users in one entry to join a
group called "It's not Israel, It's Palestine," saying it was a
response to another group set up by Israeli users advocating
the opposite message.
"Please join to beat another group called 'It's not
Palestine, it's Israel' which has 13,000 members," she wrote.
Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war,
and annexed Arab East Jerusalem in a move that has not won
international recognition. It regards all of Jerusalem as its
capital.
Facebook, for its part, identifies Jerusalem as part of
Israel. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of
the state they aspire to establish in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip.
(Editing by Paul Casciato)
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