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Israel Meets With Google and YouTube To Discuss Censoring Videos (middleeastmonitor.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Various sources report Israel's Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Tzipi Hotovely meeting with representatives of Google and YouTube to discuss censoring Palestinian videos believed to incite violence.
Original aricle (in Hebrew) from Maariv
The open question is how Google and Youtube will define "inciting violence."
Currently, all foreign journalists in the Palestinian territories are required to register with the Israeli military, and all footage must be approved through the Israeli Military Censor's office before being released. However, according to the article in alternet individual Palestinians have been uploading videos showing violence by Israeli soldiers, including execution-style killings, and highlighting the living conditions in the territories, which Israeli authorities consider inflammatory.
>> individual Palestinians have been uploading videos showing violence by Israeli soldiers, including execution-style killings
I think all Israel would need to do is reference YouTube's own Terms of Service, which prohibit videos featuring illegal acts, right? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_YouTube) Or maybe it could copyright all videos featuring its soldiers and go the German route (where YouTube would be liable for violating copyright by hosting videos). /snark
There are plenty of videos that show what living conditions in the West Bank look like. The most accurate ones are by Corey Gil Shuster, where he talks to the average Palestinian and asks pointed questions.
Not just arabs, he also asks Jews obnoxious questions posed by his audience. As someone who's been there and lived on both sides of the green line, I can tell you first hand how good his videos are.
Palestinians will always be the first to lie to you and tell you they're living in squalor. But their digs are first world. The biggest complaint arabs have is checkpoints. The biggest complaint Jews in Israel have is checkpoints. That much, the average person agrees on.
Gaza is another story. There you have a more extreme class divide, much higher unemployment rates, a lot more poverty; though, still doing pretty good when compared to the rest of the arab world. That said, it's also fair to point out that Gaza hasn't been managed by Israel in almost ten years. And they didn't have to burn their bridges with Egypt. They chose to do that.
Sadly there is actual video evidence against israeli side. This is why they are asking help from google to censor the other side, they no longer can censor the palestinians independently.
sadly both sides are acting atrociously.
That does not make them morally equivalent. Israel has far more power, and has far more options. Their violence is state-sanctioned, while most Palestinian violence is perpetrated by individuals. But most importantly, as an American, I object to Israel's violence because it is done, in part, with my tax dollars, in the form of military aid and loan guarantees.
Israel is not trying to censor speech. They're trying to stop incitement.
Maybe their soldiers should stop executing people in the streets if they don't want videos of their soldiers executing people in the streets to be on the internet. That would be, like, the fastest way to avoid any more of those videos being posted.
Soldiers in the streets, Israeli tactics right or wrong. Neither of those are the topic of the OP. Why not TRFA before bothering me with this nonsense?
Okay, so going to assume you want terrorists to disseminate training, propaganda, and ethnically motivated hate speech material so that they can gleefully murder more civilians.
How many other terror groups outside of Palestine do you wholeheartedly support in this way? Are you a fan of Daesh/ISIS? Do you think El-Shabab are nice guys? How about Boko Haram? All of them have similar grievances with the West, Jews, and Post Enlightenment society in general. Should they also be allowed to spread recruiting and training material in public forums?
You sure you've thought this through?
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Great comment Geoff.
The thing to remember here is that yes, they are asking for special review powers. And there's good reason to be skeptical there.
But, they aren't asking Youtube to remove anything that's not already in violation of their community standards (I think they us community standards at yt, not sure).
And historically, Israel does have a pretty good track record here. The domestic newspapers routinely post anti-government material, op-eds that would make you blush, and they even allow Parliament members who have actually been guilty of treason (MK Zoabi) to serve, and say whatever they like on the floor of the Knesset. Granted, they don't have absolute freedom of speech -- but we don't have that in America anymore either.
Not saying they can do no wrong. Just that I don't think this would affect anyone who's not recruiting for a terrorist organization like Hamas or Daesh. If you are recruiting for a known terrorist organization, well... I suppose that's your business. You've got bigger problems at that point than what's on Youtube.
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I'll play devil's advocate:
Firstly, the mandatory [citation needed].
OK, I'll give you your citation.
This has been documented by the New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and others, who actually interviewed the eyewitnesses. The Israeli government never interviewed the eyewitnesses, and never conducted an investigation that they talked about.
You can search for "white flag" and get repeated incidents in which Israel
Actually, not in the case of the videos in question here.
They depict "violence" against armed terrorist while actively trying to kill Israelis. They provide names of poor kids killed by the vicious Israelis, while innocently strolling along the streets of Israel, peacefully stabbing bystanders. They glorify the heaven rewards you will get if you do the same.
The article makes it sound like Israel is trying to silence the Palestinians from presenting their side. This is not the case (at least in this particular instance). We are talking about videos directed at Palestinians, using lies and distortions in order to incite impressionable Palestinians, often teenagers and children (some of the recent stabbing were done by 12 and 13 years olds) to go out and get themselves killed while trying to kill Jews.
This is not political. This is plain incitement to violence.
Shachar
I tell my military friends that I respect that they exist and do what they do. I rarely agree with why they do it and don't respect anyone who believes in patriotism or nationalism. I don't believe being a soldier makes someone a hero. I don't believe modern militaries tend to act in the right most of the time. Being a soldier is a job... nothing more. It's no different than driving a bus or picking up trash. And... if you think I'm disrespecting the soldiers by saying this, that's bullshit. I've lived through bus strikes and garbage collector strikes and I believe we as a community suffered greatly during these times. The guy driving this bus and the guy picking up the trash are critical to our lives and our survival as a culture. Do you have any idea how many lives a year garbage collectors save? To give you a hint, it's far more than a soldier will in decades of service. Do you have any idea how many people die from illness in a society where garbage isn't properly managed?
Policemen, firemen, garbage collectors, doctors, soldiers are all very very very important jobs. We should appreciate people who do them and choose to dig through the filth of society to make our lives better. That said... a soldier deserves no more special treatment than a doctor or a garbage collector. It's just a job.
It really is super double twisty speak to claim showing acts of violence being committed somehow incites violence, kind of fucking late you know, violence is already being committed. Reality is, showing those acts of violence being committed is putting enormous pressure on, to stop committing those acts of violence. So, question, is it an act of violence for a occupying force to drive around telling families they are going to gas them to death or not, https://www.youtube.com/watch?... (rather ironic considering the source). Honestly it looks like many of the acts of violence committed by the Government controlling that region, are being done purposefully to incite violence in return, so that an excuse can be fabricated to carry genocidal policies, without ramifications from the rest of the world.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen