Israeli ministers pushing for removal of Palestinian incitement videos

Israeli ministers are pushing Google to pull inflammatory Palestinian videos from the internet giant’s YouTube video-sharing site in a move critics say amounts to censorship.

It comes after Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely met Google’s in-house lawyer, Juniper Downs, and YouTube chief executive Susan Wojcicki in California.

“We are engaged daily in confronting incitement to violence, a task which can benefit greatly from the co-operation of those involved in social media,” Hotovely said.

In a letter to the company, she added: “The videos depict recent terrorist attacks, praise the assailants and present Jews and Israelis in a hateful and racist manner, and since their publishing, three more attacks have taken place so far.”

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon said Israeli officials had contacted Facebook with the same message.

Jewish blogger Richard Silverstein wrote: “My major problem is with the issue of censorship. Has Google agreed to censor videos? Has it been pressured to remove videos which document violence, whether perpetrated by Israeli security forces or Palestinian protesters?”