Anti-Semitism on the net is “like a tsunami
wave,” Knesset Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Committee chairman
MK Yoel Razbozov said during a Sunday hearing on online hate speech.
Razbozov
called for countries to enact legislation restricting online hate, and
warned that if Jews will not act to combat the spread of anti-Semitism
online, they will eventually “find themselves in mortal danger.”
Representatives
of the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Jerusalem and Diaspora
Affairs, the Israeli Internet Association and the Anti-Defamation
League, among other bodies, testified regarding the dangers of online
hate and discussed methods of combating disinformation about Jews and
Israel.
The Anti-Defamation League testified regarding its
ongoing relationship with Internet hosting company GoDaddy to take down
anti-Semitic websites, citing some 30 sites it said were taken down by
the American company.
Facebook has also been working with the ADL, its representative said.
“Facebook is coming around, they just need time,” Ronald Eissens of the International Network Against Cyberhate added.
The
World Zionist Organization established a communications center for
combating hate online and is beginning two pilot courses for training
Israelis to engage in this struggle, WZO Department for Countering
Anti-Semitism chief Yaakov Hagoel told lawmakers.
“I don’t see us winning the battle but at least we are putting up a fight,” he said.
While
combating disinformation with facts and taking anti-Semitism offline
were both tactics discussed during the meeting, only the former will
have any substantial impact, committee member MK Dov Lipman told The
Jerusalem Post.
“I fear that we are fighting a losing battle,”
he said. “I am convinced that our focus should be on getting Facebook,
YouTube, Twitter and urge websites to remove anti-Semitic materials and
not with setting up our own sites and pages to negate the
anti-Semitism. I will present this proposal to the chairman of the
committee and will push hard for this to be the government’s
direction.”
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