Facebook Wars

Complaints by Israeli settlers angry at Facebook for listing them as residents of "Palestine" prompted the popular social networking Web
site to allow users to switch their location back to Israel.
Facebook users living in Maaleh Adumim, Ariel and other large settlements in the West Bank protested when the site automatically listed their hometowns as being in "Palestine".
A group of settlers accused the California-based company of having a political agenda.
Brandee Barker, Facebook's director of communications, said users living in major settlement blocs can now choose between being listed as residents of Israel or Palestine. "Facebook users in the Israeli West Bank settlements of Maale Adumim, Beitar Illit, and Ariel can now choose between Israel and Palestine," Barker said last week in an email to Reuters.

but it's not just the settlements ...

"We also offer Hebron in both Israel and Palestine," Barker said, referring to the major West Bank city which is home to about 150,000 Palestinians and some 400 Israelis.
Barker said about 18 West Bank settlements were currently listed on Facebook and that many more would be added in the future, giving users the option of choosing Israel or Palestine.

meanwhile, on the other side of town ...

Palestinian users have set up their own Facebook group whose members threatened to cancel their accounts if Palestine was removed from the site. Called "If Palestine is removed from Facebook, I am closing my account," the group has over 4,700 members. "We created this group to let our voices be heard not only among Facebook's management but all the users, and to tell everyone that Palestine is and will always be a country," Saif Qadoumi, the group's 20-year-old founder, told Reuters. Sara Al, a group member, urged users in one entry to join a group called "It's not Israel, It's Palestine," saying it was a response to another group set up by Israeli users advocating the opposite message. "Please join to beat another group called 'It's not Palestine, it's Israel' which has 13,000 members," she wrote.

but in the end ...

Facebook, for its part, identifies Jerusalem as part of Israel.

source