MK Uri Maklev was among the speakers in Knesset during a session that addressed social networking posts and the dangers they pose, possibly leading to the loss of life.

The session was prompted by a high profile case that just occurred in Israel, leading to a senior official in a Ministry of Interior Office taking his own life following a Facebook post against him, alleging he is racist as a woman who sought his assistance felt his curt attitude was race related. The post went viral and the man, whose identity was released, took his own life.

“Today’s technology has developed a serious phenomenon which unfortunately is offensive, defamatory, painful, and severe and criticizes people, and can lead to the loss of life without having any oversight on the subject. With today’s technology there can be smoke without a fire and people get hurt,” added Maklev, who continued “It is unacceptable that there is no solution to today’s technology that may provide support to a person under vicious attack and we are compelled to find a solution to uproot this phenomenon and if we don’t succeed, and it appears we may not, we must at least search for the solution’.

The rav then detailed פרשת עגלה ערופה in which the elders of a city are summoned and they must declare they did not play a hand in spilling of the blood. He explained Rashi, that clearly they did not kill the person but they nevertheless declare they did not care for this person and his needs before he left the city. Therefore Maklev feels that today society is compelled to act to find a solution.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)