Facebook close Palestinian Fatah's Page because Arafat Photo

The official Facebook page of the Palestinian ruling party Fatah has been shut down by the social media website Monday after the page posted an old photo showing late Palestinian President and founder of the party Yasser Arafat holding a rifle alongside another leader, the party said in a statement.

“Facebook administration shut down the Fatah movement page because of this photo. We will always continue to be proud of the heritage of our nation and struggle,” the resistance movement and political party said in a tweet Monday along with a photo of Arafat handing a rifle to the current deputy chairman of the movement Mahmoud Aloul.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported that Munir Jaghoub, a Fatah official and the “administrator” of the Facebook page, said in a statement that Facebook closed the Fatah’s official page after the photo was posted. 

TeleSur TV notes that in January, more than 100 Facebook pages connected to Hamas, the other major Palestinian movement and political party, were shut down on the basis of supporting terrorism and “inciting” violence.

Such tactics by Facebook do not seem to apply to Israeli incitement pages or groups who have in the past promoted the mass killing of Palestinians — like during the 2014 Israeli war on Gaza — and supported soldiers who carried out extrajudicial killings against Palestinians.