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July 24, 2008 8:06:09 AM CDT

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Mideast Strife Spills Onto Facebook

Posted Mar 20, 08 11:37 AM CDT in Technology,  World 

(Newser) – Facebook has now had to take on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the Guardian reports, on account of its standard IDing of members by country. Jewish settlers in the West Bank were fuming when the site told them they lived in Palestine; Palestinians in East Jerusalem in turn protested that their turf was listed as part of Israel.

The online-networking behemoth soon capitulated, allowing some users to identify with either country. But the attendant volleys on Facebook pages have sparked a cyber-conflict that looks as intractable as its real world counterpart: some settlers complain that Palestine even exists as an option. "That's something that doesn't exist and will never exist," one wrote.

Source Guardian (UK)

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Israeli settlers walk next to new mobile homes in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Eli, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008.   (AP Photo/Dan Balilty)
A Palestinian spray-paints a graffiti message on the Palestinian side of the separation barrier near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2007.   (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
A veiled Palestinian woman walks past a wall painted with a Palestinian flag in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007.   (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
Demonstrators hold Israeli flags during a protest by Jewish settlers and their supporters on the walls of east Jerusalem's Old City, Tuesday Jan. 8, 2008.   (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
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