Calls for 'third Intifada' on Facebook

2011-03-10 19:00

Tel Aviv - Palestinians were being urged for the first time via such internet-based social networks as Facebook and Twitter to launch a "third Intifada" (uprising) against Israel.

The unidentified initiators said on Thursday that more than 52 000 Facebook members had so far clicked the "like" button for the call showing a clenched fist in the colours of the Palestinian flag and the slogan "Palestine will be freed and we will free it".

The call said that, after the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, it was now time for an uprising in Palestine.

Inhabitants of surrounding Arab countries were being urged to march toward Palestine on May 15, the so-called Nakba Day - "day of the catastrophe" referring to the date of Israel's creation in 1948.

By May, the initiators hope to have reached millions of people via the Facebook network, and they also warned against any attempts to block the call. If Facebook blocked the site, then Muslims would boycott Facebook, they warned.

Meanwhile B'tselem, the Israeli centre for human rights in the Palestinian territories, on its website noted the blood toll of the previous two Intifada uprisings in 1987 and 2000.

It said the first Intifada cost the lives of about 1 400 Palestinians and 270 Israelis. The second Intifada resulted in the loss of about 4 800 Palestinian lives.

By Israeli foreign ministry accounts, a total of 542 people were killed in 140 Palestinian suicide attacks between 2000 and 2007.

- SAPA