Israeli premier's son blocked on Facebook for anti-Muslim posts

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's eldest son, Yair, tweeted on Sunday that Facebook blocked his page for 24 hours over apparent anti-Muslim posts and called the leading social network a "dictatorship".

In a message posted on Thursday on his Facebook page after deadly Palestinian attacks, Yair Netanyahu, 27, had posted: "all Muslims leave" Israel, AFP reported.

Critics of the prime minister have often attacked Yair as a grown man living in the premier's residence despite having no official role. They say his parents are grooming him for political power in an attempt to establish a dynasty.

"Do you know where there are no attacks? In Iceland and in Japan where coincidentally there are no Muslims," the prime minister's son wrote.

In another post, he wrote that there were only two possible solutions for peace, either "all Jews leave (Israel) or all Muslims leave".

"I prefer the second option," he added.  

His comments came after two soldiers were shot dead on Thursday at a central West Bank bus station near a settlement. On the same day, a baby prematurely delivered after his mother was shot and wounded in a separate attack nearby on 9 December also died.

Facebook deleted Yair Netanyahu's posts, prompting him to take to Twitter to criticise the social networking giant, calling it a "dictatorship of thought".

It’s the second time in a week that the younger Netanyahu has posted a controversial comment online. On Monday, he posted on Facebook that the media, as well as left-wing NGOs and politicians, are “traitors,” the Times of Israel reported. His father disavowed the comment.

Last year, Yair posted a diagram featuring anti-Semitic tropes featuring Jewish billionaire George Soros, who funds left-wing causes and organisations in several countries. The post depicted Soros controlling the world via other conspiracy theory figures like lizard people, known as Reptilians, and the Illuminati or Freemasons, the Jerusalem Post said.

Those figures, according to the graphic Netanyahu shared, control former prime minister Ehud Barak, who controls failed Labor candidate Eldad Yaniv and former prime minister’s residence superintendent Meni Naftali, leaders of the then-weekly anti-Netanyahu protests in Petah Tikva, the Post reported.