Hate posts follow globe furore

JUST weeks after pledging to remove a world globe with Palestine printed over the area of Israel from sale, Typo has come under fire again after allowing a barrage of “blatantly anti-Semitic and anti-Israel” comments to remain on its Facebook page.

Among the comments were “Zionism is a cancer that is killing the world”; “Israel is an illegally squatting Jewish caliphate in Palestine”; “Israel is the largest anti-semetic nation on the planet commiting genocide against the real semites (sic)”; and “There’s only so much murdering Zionists can do, before the world wakes up and revolts in protest against the indiscriminate killing of Palestinians and the raping of their land.”

One user wrote they would gladly purchase all of the remaining globes as they “intend on handing the rest of the globes out at the synagogue on Saturday”, while another said the “Jewish equivalent of ISIS [is] Zionism”.

On Monday Typo said that as a result of the “escalating nature of the conversation” regarding the globe, it will be disabling any commentary on the subject.

The comments remained on Typo’s Facebook page until Tuesday – when The AJN notified the retailer of the bigoted posts – despite Typo warning its Facebook followers previously that “any abusive or derogatory comments or language will be deleted from the page immediately”.

When asked why the comments had remained, a spokesperson said, “To reiterate, our decision to disable comments is based on the debate moving far beyond the discussion around our product, and we believe this is in the best interest of our Facebook community.

“We have no further comment to make.”

B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission chair Dvir Abramovich said he was “shocked and dismayed” by the outpouring of “blatantly anti-Semitic and anti-Israel” posts.

“The damage has already been done, and it’s extremely troubling that the Typo moderators, who were aware of the outrageous attacks, have shamefully turned a blind eye to the ugly and bigoted defamation of Jews, Israel and Zionism that appeared on its page,” Abramovich said.

He added that by not removing the posts immediately, Typo allowed Jew-haters to use its platform as a “bully-pulpit to give voice to their hateful and racist rants without fear of repercussions”.

“Such staggering intolerance and prejudice directed against the Jewish community and Israel has no place in Australia,” he said.

“We call on Typo to forcefully condemn these remarks as unacceptable, and show more responsiveness and discretion in the future, so as to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.”

EVAN ZLATKIS