Apple removed an application from its App Store on Wednesday after a Jewish human rights group and a top Israeli official said it contained anti-Semitic content and promoted violence against Israel.
The app, “The Third Intifada,” notified people of upcoming protests against Israel and also highlighted anti-Israel news and opinion from around the Web.
“We removed this app from the App Store because it violates the developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people,” an Apple spokesman said Wednesday evening.
The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a group dedicated to stopping anti-Semitism, put out a statement on Tuesday asking the company to “immediately withdraw its approval” of the application. The center said that its researchers had found that the app “contains anti-Israel content — articles, photographs of ‘martyrs’ and stories — and updates its users on further incitements to protest and violence.”
According to Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, Yuli Edelstein, an Israeli minister of public affairs, also sent a letter to Apple asking for the “immediate removal” of the application from the App Store.
Apple states in its App Store policy, under section 19, which pertains to religion, culture, and ethnicity that “Apps 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.”
In March, Facebook removed a group, “3rd Intifada,” that was said to be promoting violence against Israel. A Facebook representative told The Jerusalem Post that the group’s page was taken down after Facebook “received repeated warnings about posts that violated our policies.
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