PRESS CONFERENCE: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15 at 10:30 am :: With Surging Violence in Mideast, Wiesenthal Center to Urge Social Media Giants to Bar Palestinian Online Terror Training, Incitement Against Jews::

October 14, 2015            

Tomorrow, October 15, at 10:30am, Senior Wiesenthal Center officials will present major findings from the Center’s Digital Terrorism and Hate Project showing dozens of social media postings, inciting Palestinians to attack Israelis. Included will be online tutorials of how to stab Jewish neighbors.

Today’s New York Times reports on one Palestinian, who after stabbing a Jewish man,  “Joined a cadre of young Palestinians who, spurred on by social media, have independently decided to attack Israelis, killing seven and wounding scores in two dozen episodes since October 1st, authorities said.”

At tomorrow’s press conference, Rabbis Marvin Hier Founder and Dean and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Wiesenthal Center, will present a fraction of the untold numbers of violent social media posts uncovered by researchers from the Center’s Digital Terror and Hate Project just this past week. Cooper will also focus on four aspects of this developing trend:

1. The promotion of violent future attacks.

2. Instructions and How-To guides for would-be attackers, including graphics outlying the most effective ways to slay a Jewish victim

3. The celebration of these attacks and the instant martyrization of attackers killed by law enforcement.

4. The push by some supporters of anti-Israel Boycott legitimizing this violent “uprising."

Center officials will also present sample postings removed after protests from Wiesenthal Center.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center regularly meets with Social Networking giants in Silicon Valley and releases an annual report card reflecting the commitment (or lack thereof) of companies to curb online terror and hate.

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

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).