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Last update - 12:35 18/09/2009
Report: 'Dutch Facebook' rife with anti-Semitism, blood libel
By Cnaan Liphshiz, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Facebook, social networks 

Dutch social media sites are rife with anti-Semitism linked to Israel, according to a new report compiled by Dutch and Israeli monitors who study online discussions.

Though described by some as "superficial," the report prompted Holland's oldest political party to demand that the justice department address the issue.

In preparing the 11-page Dutch language document, the team of web monitors reviewed two online outlets - the Hyves social network and the discussion forums of the newspaper Volkskrant - for three months, until August this year.
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On Hyves - the most popular social network in Netherlands with nine million Dutch members - the team documented calls to "murder all Jews" and for Adolf Hitler "to finish off his job."

The report says that moderators on Hyves, often described as "the Dutch Facebook," take no action to stop the posting of inflammatory anti-Semitic content on its pages.

"Hyves should consider a new system for moderation," the report states. "Moderators who do not comply with regulations should be barred."

The research team, led by Yochanan Visser, a Dutch Israeli living in the West Bank settlement of Efrat and members of two pro-Israeli web monitoring groups, say they also found "blood libels" about Israeli soldiers on Hyves.

A post by a person describing herself as a Palestinian girl from Jerusalem by the name of Fatma, wrote that her father had been abducted in the dead of night and hacked to pieces. "My dear mother was beaten to death before me by the Jews, the beasts," the post went on to say, adding the soldiers raped the writer's sister.

The Web monitoring groups - the Israel Facts monitor and the Network on Anti-Semitism in the Netherlands ? date the blood tale to January, when it appeared on a Hyves discussion group called "Free Palestine" - one of 35 different groups which the report defines as either anti-Israeli or pro-Palestinian.

Following the document's release, a member of the Reformed Political Party in Dutch parliament requested the Justice Minister to review the study's conclusions and address the problem raised in it.

"The direct relationship between the conflict in Israel and contemporary anti-Semitism is even clearer now," Visser told Haaretz.

"This is apparent on media where impressionable youths shape much of their perceptions."

He added this situation was reflected in a recent report by the Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI), which showed that anti-Semitic attacks increased tenfold during Israel's offensive in Gaza last winter.

"Anti-Semitism is of course not allowed on Hyves," the website's cofounder, Raymond Spanjar, told Haaretz. "There is too much content on Hyves for us to monitor, but we always follow up on complaints on specific content."

Elise Friedmann, the maker of the CIDI report on anti-Semitism, said that "although the study about Hyves did certainly find some examples of anti-Semitism, it did not sufficiently place them in context, and does not seem to have been compiled in keeping with the highest research standards."

The review of the content on the discussion forum of Volkskrant ? a well-respected mainstream newspaper - revealed several instances of Holocaust denial, which were all removed within hours of complaining to the moderator. "The situation in Volksrant's forum can be described as better [than on Hyves,]" Visser's report states.

The report nonetheless alleges that Volksrant's discussion forum is "dominated" by activists who are "polarizing the debate" and, in some cases, expressing anti-Semitism. It recommends the forums' moderators work toward creating a more balanced debate about the Middle East and take a more nuanced approach when dealing with issues pertaining to the Holocaust.

"Most pro-Palestinian activists are operating under pseudonym, the bulk of the pro-Israel activists in their own name," the report says.

Henk Müller, a Volkskrant journalist who is responsible for the opinion section of the paper's website, said that Visser's report was "politically oriented and lacking substance." He said the forum tries to strike a balanced tone, and places great importance on removing anti-Semitic content.

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      1.   so we got illegal squatter Yochanan Visser complaining about anti 02:14  |  semetism? 18/09/09
      2.   the probl em are the mok ros 09:43  |  Jan 18/09/09
      3.   anti semitism 12:14  |  Alistair 18/09/09
      4.   dutch antisemitism 17:11  |  philip weberman 18/09/09
      5.   "dominated" by activists who are "polarizing the debate" 19:19  |  Martin 18/09/09
      6.   philip weberman 20:15  |  flora 18/09/09
      7.   dutch facebook 20:17  |  proud american 18/09/09
      8.   To philip Weberman #4 `dutch antisemitism` 21:28  |  Colin Wright 18/09/09
      9.   hyves... 21:46  |  Reemo 18/09/09
      10.   Alistair who cares what you think? 03:21  |  Petra 19/09/09
      11.   #4 Israel warcrimes purpetuate anti-semitism 03:35  |  Marc Leb 19/09/09
      12.   You mean Israeli photoshoped war crimes Marc Leb 00:07  |  Meo 20/09/09
      13.   Lev:If Isr were peacful no anti- semitism 21:13  |  Bobby 30/09/09
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