Israel's information minister sent an email request to Steve Jobs
JERUSALEM — The Israeli government on Tuesday appealed to Apple Inc. to remove an application called "ThirdIntifada" from its App Store, saying the program glorifies violence against the Jewish state.
Israel's information minister, Yuli Edelstein, sent the request in an email to Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive.
"Intifadah" is the Arabic term for two violent uprisings against Israel over the past two decades. The free application encourages its followers to share opinions and organize protests against Israel.
It is linked to a website that, among other things, helped organize violent clashes with Israeli troops recently along Israel's frontiers with Lebanon and Syria.
"Upon review of the stories, articles and photos published by means of the application, one can easily see that this is in fact anti-Israel and anti-Zionist. Furthermore, as is implied by its name, the application calls for an uprising against the State of Israel," Edelstein wrote.
"I am convinced that you are aware of this type of application's ability to unite many toward an objective that could be disastrous," he added. "I therefore turn to you with the request to instruct the immediate removal of the application in question."
There was no immediate comment by Apple.
Jewish human rights organization, the Simon Wiesenthal Center also urged Apple to remove the application. The center's associate dean, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, said in a release issued on Tuesday that "the leading new media and technology companies should not be facilitating entities with a track record of promoting incitement and violence."
Apple's guidelines for developers say that applications "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."
The guidelines also reject depictions of weapons that encourage "illegal or reckless" use.
A similar campaign by Edelstein last March prompted Facebook to remove a related page.
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