Why are TruthFinder and Malwarebytes sponsoring Israeli Propaganda on Quora?
Are you by any chance interested in the following question that I posted on Quora? ‘What caused the Palestinians to rise up against Israel during the Al-Aqsa or Second Intifada?’
If so, and if you google the question, you will find the following two uninformative and deliberately misleading answers, sponsored by TruthFinder with an ad by Malwarebytes.
That’s a real shame, because, instead of living up to its mission as “ a fantastic source or … medium of knowledge & information”, Quora becomes not only the purveyor of deliberate misinformation on Palestine, and positive branding of Israel, but also a provider of trashy answers like the two below, one of which (the answer by Michael Davidson) is written by a “Most Viewed Writer on Palestinians” in Quora.
Paul Nicholson, Forensic Psychologist
Their incredibly corrupt leadership pushed for it to cover their own crooked tracks …don’t waste your time looking for Israeli oppression and other Palestinian slogans ,a month spent in the region will show you it’s Hamas and the PLO who do the oppressing of their own people. Have a look at the the decadent luxury they live in after stealing the billions of dollars donated by misinformed and well meaning governments ,and the way they keep their own people in poverty and blame the Israelis.
‘Michael Davison, lives in Israel (1969-present)
Answered Apr 22, 2019 · Author has 2.7k answers and 2.3m answer views
According to Yasser Arafat’s wife, the Second Intifada was pre-planned before Arafat set out to Camp David for “peace talks”:
Suha Arafat, Widow of Yasser Arafat: The 2000 Intifada Was Premeditated, Planned by Arafat
The reasons may be unclear, but were probably intended to cover the tracks of the PA’s mismanagement of funds meant to improve the quality of life for the Palestinians and create obstacles to any further talk of peace.
Informative answers on Quora, when they provide serious and accurate information about Israel/Palestine (usually unflattering to Israel) are often “collapsed” by malicious reporting or relegated to the bottom through organized “downvoting”.
As I write in Does Quora Count?, “Hasbara substantiates group think on Quora. To moderate content, Quora needs a policy that clearly defines its terms and professional moderators to enforce it, rather than artificial intelligence that is clearly inadequate to the task or a system that allows malicious reporting to shape content.”
Since I am banned from Quora, my own answer, which I will post below for contrast with the above, is deleted, and very difficult to find in a google search on the topic. For more information on how this state of affairs has come about, see
“Most Viewed Writers” on the topic “Palestinians” in Quora are almost exclusively Zionist and rabidly anti-Palestinian
I have written several hundred well-sourced answers mostly on Palestine/Israel in Quora that are now similarly unavailable.
What caused the Palestinians to rise up against Israel during the Al-Aqsa or Second Intifada?
Rima Najjar, retired professor, Al-Quds University, Palestine
All Palestinian uprisings, great and small, are a response to Israel’s shirking of its responsibility in the protection and wellbeing of the Palestinian people under its occupation, as required by international humanitarian law, particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel has long attempted to bypass responsibility in several ways, including rejecting the very fact of occupation.
When the Al-Aqsa or Second Intifada broke out, Israel again played semantics tricks in order to avoid constraining its military. It declared the Intifada “a conflict short of war” (“almost war” is not recognized under international law, and so no war, just like no occupation, means a pass for Israel), casting all forms of resistance as “terrorism” or even criminal activity, and in this way relieved itself of responsibility for state terrorism as it simultaneously nullified Palestinian rights to self-determination.
The Al-Aqsa Intifada raged for four years, from Sept 29, 2000 to Oct 2004, triggered by Sharon’s visit to Haram al Sharif, the compound housing Al-Aqsa Mosque on Sep. 28, 2000, amid the dawning realization among Palestinians that the Oslo “process” had been a trap and fears that Camp David would result in formalizing Israeli control over the occupied territory. The Intifada was a message from grassroots Palestinians to Arafat enjoining him not to sign Camp David, and pushing him to demand a better framework of negotiations to advance the Palestinian cause. Unfortunately, Arafat was unable to turn the momentum provided him by the uprising into action, and the “negotiations” continued to stall. Meanwhile Sharon capitalized on the Intifada to win a landslide election.
The Al-Aqsa or Second Intifada was a response to what Jeff Halper calls Israel’s Matrix of Control,
An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel by Jeff Halper (Pluto Press, 2008)
Which conceals a repressive regime intended to permanently deny Palestinians self-determination and their basic human rights behind a façade of proper administration, physical constraints and ostensibly justified military control. It also reconfigures the entire country, ensuring that a viable Palestinian state will never emerge and the Matrix will control Palestinian life forever.” P. 173
During the Al-Aqsa Intifada more than 1000 Israeli civilians were killed, including 113 children, and around 6,000 injured. On the Palestinian side, 3, 500 Palestinians died, 85 of whom were civilians including 650 children. More than 29,000 were maimed or injured. (Palestinian Red Crescent Society)
It is safe to say that the civilian casualties on both sides were victims of terrorism, if we refer to the definition of terrorism as stated in the Fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Persons in Time of War. That definition is inclusive and condemns all forms of terror from whatever source — from above (state terror) or from below (non-state terror).
It is also safe to say that Israel’s brutal response to the Al-Aqsa Intifada cannot be explained by security concerns alone. Just as Netanyahu’s government today no longer conceals the supremacist Zionist underpinnings of the state, Sharon’s concerns were as follows:
An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel by Jeff Halper (Pluto Press, 2008)
The challenge to Israeli hegemony had to be confronted, put down with resolute force, before “the Arabs” got it into their head that they had any legitimate claim to our land or were in fact our equal partners. Sharon was fond of saying he would beat the Palestinians “until they got the message”. P. 190
Image source: Hamas: Al-Aqsa Intifada revealed ‘futility’ of peace talks
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P.S. I document Quora practices in my blog/journal post, “Most Viewed Writers” on the topic “Palestinians” in Quora are almost exclusively Zionist and rabidly anti-Palestinian
and in
Banned from Quora “because they are pro-Palestine”
Writing on Quora while Palestinian.
Also see the following stories:
Dear Quora: Letter to Tatiana Esteves, Writer Relations, Quora
On the Hijacking of “Palestine Today”: The Drive for “Normalization” on Quora
Why are TruthFinder and Malwarebytes sponsoring Israeli Propaganda on Quora?
Censorship on Quora: A Palestine Case Study
Feedback for Quora Policymakers
Jewish Supremacy In Palestine Is A Dirty Reality; It Is Not “Uncivil” To Point It Out
Palestine, the place where Israel is
Rima Najjar is a Palestinian whose father’s side of the family comes from the forcibly depopulated village of Lifta on the western outskirts of Jerusalem. She is an activist, researcher and retired professor of English literature, Al-Quds University, occupied West Bank. She contributes stories/opinion to PalestineChronicle.com and other publications.
