Facebook turns Tel Aviv into ‘Al Mas’Udiya’
February 7, 2016Israelis who posted Facebook statuses in Tel Aviv during the weekend were surprised to find that according to Facebook, they were not in Tel Aviv – but rather in “Al Mas’Udiya.”
The name refers to a town abandoned by Arab residents during the 1948 War of Independence, when the surrounding Arab nations tried and failed to destroy the nascent modern Jewish state.
The location of the village, which has not existed for around 68 years, currently would be between the streets of Ibn Gabirol and Arlozorov in Tel Aviv, right near Hameah Tower.
Facebook took things even further by listing several events due to take place in “Al Mas’Udiya” on the location’s page – including the Samsung Tel Aviv Marathon and the Chocolate Festival, reports Yedioth Aharonoth on Sunday.
It goes without saying that Tel Aviv is well within the 1949 Armistice lines, which the UN fully recognizes as sovereign Israeli territory.
Nationalists are likely to find the Facebook snafu particularly humorous given their long-standing criticism of the hypocrisy of Tel Aviv leftists.
The dynamic was on display in February 2014, when Hevron activist Baruch Marzel took on Tel Aviv professors as they held a conference on the “occupation” at Tel Aviv University. Marzel noted the campus is in fact located on the ruins of the Arab village of Sheikh Mounis, and humorously termed the leftist professors “the real occupiers.”
This is not the first time Facebook has had problems correctly labeling parts of Israel. In January Israelis who checked-in at the Golan Heights on Facebook were puzzled to find they were listed as being in “Golan Heights, Spain.”
Likewise Ayalon Canada Park near Modi’in was recently listed as belonging to the Palestinian Authority.
Facebook has come in for heat after legal NGO Shurat HaDin in January unequivocally demonstrated that Facebook discriminates against Israelis, in an experiment showing that only pages that incite against Palestinian Arabs are removed, while pages inciting against Israelis are left up.
Shurat HaDin has launched a crowdfunding campaign to protest Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for his ignoring the open incitement, in a campaign called “Zuckerberg don’t kill us!”
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