Wiesenthal Center Calls on Apple to Remove “Third Intifada” iPhone App

June 21, 2011

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is urging computer maker Apple to immediately withdraw its approval of an iPhone app called “The Third Palestinian Intifada” which, according the Center researchers, contains anti-Israel content—articles, photographs of “martyrs” and stories—and updates its users on further incitements to protest and violence. The group who developed the app was also behind the “Third Intifada” Facebook page, which was promptly taken down following protests from the Wiesenthal Center, among others, to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

“Dissent, dialogue yes, but the leading new media and technology companies should not be facilitating entities with a track record of promoting incitement and violence,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center and a pioneer in examining the co-opting of the Internet and social media by terrorist and hate groups.

(visuals available: www.wiesenthal.com/intifada-app)

Cooper said that according to Apple’s guidelines, applications “containing references or commentary about a religious, cultural or ethnic group that are defamatory, offensive, mean-spirited or likely to expose the targeted group to harm or violence will be rejected.” “Therefore,” he concluded, “we urge Apple to do the right thing and de-link “The Third Intifada” from its network.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).

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