‘Dislike’ This! Bibi’s Post Deleted by Army
Deleted! Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?s post was deleted from an Israeli Army facebook page. Image by nate lavey
When then IDF Spokesman Avi Benayahu told the Herzliya Conference that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered his unit to train soldiers to be “new media warriors,” he probably never imagined that a year later one of those keyboard warriors would brazenly block the prime minister on Facebook.
Netanyahu has a number of Facebook pages: three official pages representing “The Prime Minister of Israel,” in Hebrew, English and Arabic, which are run by editors inside the Prime Minister’s Office, as well a political page run by Likud party spokespeople.
Two weeks ago, Haaretz reported on a successful campaign to promote the latter page, which managed to recruit an additional 20,000 fans. Seeking to expand the page’s exposure, organizers of the campaign posted comment containing a link to Netanyahu’s political Facebook page on the IDF’s new Facebook page, which has managed to win some 93,000 fans since it was created about a month ago.
However, one of the page’s editors, a soldier in the IDF Spokesman’s new media department, decided that the comment violated the page’s comments policy, which forbids “curse words and improper messages” – a broad enough definition to include political messages. IDF soldiers are forbidden from engaging in any sort of political discussions while in uniform.
After rejecting the comment, the soldier decided to report the fact on his personal Facebook page. “Today Bibi left a comment on the IDF’s [Facebook] page asking people to ‘like’ him. I banned him for expressing a political message on the page.”
For more, go to Haaretz.com
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
