∞ Israel asks Apple to remove app that calls for Palestinian uprising

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Public Diplomacy Minister Yuli-Yoel Edelstein has written Apple CEO Steve Jobs and asked that an app be removed from the App Store.

[ad#Google Adsense 300x250 in story]According to Reuters, the app “passed on information about protests, some violent, planned against Israel.” It appears the app is based on Arabic editorial content and offers users information on upcoming protests.

A similar complaint to Facebook resulted in the removal of a page on the social networking site, according to the report.

“Companies like this that have a global reach also have a responsibility, and they are aware of this responsibility, and I am sure that Apple will act in the same way (as Facebook),” Ayalon told Israel’s Army Radio.


  • Anonymous

    The protests turned out have a violent result, but the right to protest peaceably should not be abrogated by Apple. To blame the app for one violent episode in an endless stream of violence on both sides is absurd. Israel seems to be afraid of free speech and democracy for Palestinians; you can’t promote western ideals like free speech and then attempt to suppress it when you don’t like what people say.

  • http://twitter.com/aaronmb Aaron Benedict

    Not to get too political but I’m usually more on the Pro-Israel side but in this case they are wrong. They shouldn’t be stopping free speech. I’m sure if the shoe was on the other foot, they wouldn’t be at all happy.

    • http://twitter.com/2fast2finkel Max Finkel

      so you’re saying that someone could just put up an app calling for and helping to facilitate the next 9/11 and that’d be totally alright for you?  The two intifadas had a combined death toll of more than 1200 israelis.  That’s a major number.

      • Luke

        1,200 is just a number. Thousands more Palestinian lives have been lost during the illegal occupation and settler violence. They have a right to protest as they wish. Free speech!

        • Anonymous

          Free speech, yes. Organizing violence, no. This is in a grey area as also email, twitter, etc can be used for organizing violence. However, the word intifada does have a connotation of violence and surely the Palestinians could come up with a better way to take advantage of the iOS family of devices without also seemingly promoting violence.

          Apple needs to be careful so as not to appear to promote violence and they’re quite particular about their image.

          Additionally, Israel has the right to ask for the app to be removed just as Apple has the right to deny their request.

  • McBain

    Like Facebook, Apple should not allow its services to be used to promote or facilitate the terrorists’/terror states’ attacks on Israel. This isn’t free speech by free people at issue- it’s violence and propaganda by the bloodthirsty savages behind the PA, Hamas and the Syrian regime, among others, using the stooges they rule over as pawns (at best) or willing accomplices.

  • Anonymous

    So Mister McBain, is referring to adults as ‘stooges’ or ‘pawns’ a justification for denying them free speech?  Don’t we have people in the U.S. who are swayed by strong religious, political or even cult leaders? But nonetheless the constitution assumes they have equal right to free speech as anyone else.  The constitution does not get into whom is right and whom is wrong, whom is a gentleman and whom is a ‘savage.’ Free speech is immutable, as long as it does not incite violence in the moment. The protest was proposed as just that, a protest. It then degenerated into violence. We have had the same kind of thing occur here, luckily with less loss of life. The program they are using is not that different from the communication that Egyptians used to find their own steps toward democracy. If we believe in democracy and justice, then surely we must trust that free speech will, in the end, lead in a positive direction.

    • McBain

      The US Constitution is actually irrelevant to this situation.  The 1st Amendment restricts the ability of the Federal government to limit citizens’ speech, and the 14th amendment has been interpreted as extending those restrictions to the state governments.  Apple is a publicly held corporation, not a government. “Free speech” is not guaranteed in the App Store.  With any luck, the hateful, anti-Jew sentiments of those promoting a “3rd intifada” won’t be allowed to take root there.