Tel Aviv man vandalizes Facebook building to protest incitement, Jew hatred on social network

Bloody hand prints, "blood on your hands" slogan adorn HQ.

By BEN HARTMAN
Updated: OCTOBER 19, 2015 01:12
Cartoon on Facebook page of news portal "Palestine Now" shows Palestinian making victory sign with his fingers, drawn as two knives. (photo credit: MEMRI)
Cartoon on Facebook page of news portal "Palestine Now" shows Palestinian making victory sign with his fingers, drawn as two knives.
(photo credit: MEMRI)
Tel Avivian Rotem Gez vandalized his city’s Facebook headquarters in protest of the social networking site’s failure to delete pages inciting to violence against Jews and Israelis.
In a video he posted online on Sunday, Gez can be seen spray-painting bloody handprints on the Rothschild Boulevard building’s wall, as well as the slogan you have “blood on your hands.”
Gez said in an interview with Ch. 2 that he vandalized the building because Facebook “doesn’t take down pages that call for the murder of Israelis,” and alleged that the company has an interest in keeping controversial pages online because they’re good for traffic.
Gez also said that he planned to turn himself in to police on Sunday, but by late afternoon a spokesman for the Tel Aviv police said that they had not received a complaint about the graffiti and were not familiar with the case.
This isn’t the first time Gez has butted heads with the social networking giant. In late 2011, he legally changed his name to “Mark Zuckerberg,” so that in a lawsuit the website was filing against him they would have to say they were suing someone with the same name as their founder.
The company sued Gez over a system he created to sell “likes” for posts that users make on the site.
Social networks are believed to be playing a significant role in encouraging potential attackers by allowing propaganda videos, photos, and hate speech to be posted freely.
Many Israelis on Facebook and elsewhere have criticized the social networking site and have called for action to be taken to force Facebook to crack down on hatred and incitement against Israelis and Jews on the site.