Apple removes ThirdIntifada from the App Store after Israeli government request

Apple has removed the ThirdIntifada app from the App Store, after the Israeli government asked Apple to get rid of it earlier this week.

ThirdIntifada was used to distribute anti-Israeli editorial and announce scheduled protests to Palestinian users. Intifada is an Arabic word that means “shaking off” but can be more accurately translated to English as “uprising”.

Two previous Israeli-Palestinian conflicts are known as the First Intifada and Second Intifada, and the name ThirdIntifada makes the intent of those behind the app quite clear.

Israel’s information minister Yuli Edelstein and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group, both complained to Apple. Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr told the Associated Press that the app “violates the developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people.”