Facebook doesn’t care where you live – unless you live in Israel. That’s the upshot of a disturbing absence of the name “Israel” on the only page on the site where you are required to list your location. Unlike residents of places as far-flung and exotic as Yemen, Seychelles, Rwanda, Guyana and Benin, to name just a few – as well as, believe it or not, “Palestine” – Israelis cannot sign up to get text messages from their accounts on their cellphones.
But don’t take my word for it: Check out this link, which leads you to Facebook’s Mobile Settings page. When you enter your password for sign-up, you’re presented with a drop-down list of countries. Israel isn’t there. Uganda, Mozambique, Haiti, Kyrgyzstan and Fiji are there, along with Palestine, and some 100 other countries. But not Israel.
Interestingly, this is the only area on Facebook where you are required to give your location information.  Why here?  In order to use your phone for Facebook texts, the site does need to know your country – so that it can verify your phone number with your cellphone service provider, and supply you with the appropriate services. And that arrangement works fine in places like Brunei, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Congo, Tajikistan and Laos, among others – but not Israel!
Sounds like a scandal: No Israel, but yes Palestine – which, last I checked was not (yet) a country. Is this an example of Facebook’s true anti-Israel colors coming out? Does Mark Zuckerberg now join the all-time list of “self-hating Jews?”
Not necessarily. Or maybe yes. The truth is that there seems to be evidence for and against. In good journalistic tradition, I hereby lay out the case to you, the reader; whether you write nasty letters to Zuckerberg for his anti-Israel stance (or send him a complimentary letter for his anti-Israel stance!) – or decide that this is a straight and simple business story with no intonations of anti-Israel attitude at all, is up to you.
But first the facts. At issue, as mentioned, is signing up with Facebook to get text messages on your cellphone (updates, status changes, wall posts, etc.). The messages are sent to your phone via text message (SMS) – obviating the need to install anything at all on your phone. Note that you can get the same information on your phone using Facebook app, which you download for free from the appropriate site (iPhone Store, Android Marketplace, etc.); and Facebook does encourage users to download that app. The Mobile signup is a convenience for users, saving them the effort of installing the app.
Which leads one to believe that the issue here may be nothing more than business. Social media guru Yotam Tavor was a bit skeptical of the anti-Israel theory. “It seems like the issue is in Facebook, but the reason is that there are no ‘unlimited text’ packages in Israel or competitive pricing. It seems like a purely financial decision,” he said.
Forum posts on a site called Quora confirm that this is a viable theory. In answer to the question “Why doesn’t Facebook support SMS in Israel?,” one respondent answered that the issues was “probably linked to the cost of delivering SMS to Israel. Facebook strategy is either to strike unlimited deals with major carriers e.g. EU and US and/or negotiate low rates per SMS.” As most locals know, “low rates” is something Israelis are not usually privy to – and “unlimited” is not a concept on the Israeli cellphone service providers’ radar.
So, problem solved. Or is it? It’s hard to imagine that 110 countries in the world, many of which have very primitive and expensive cellphone services systems (like Liberia, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Sri Lanka and Sudan) all have more forward-looking cellphone service providers than Israel. Based on a spot check, they do not. Example: For years, one of the favorite complaints in user forums among Gulf country users was the high price of service from Etisalat, one of the largest service providers in the region. It was only last year, when a second service provider was authorized to do business in the UAE and other countries, that prices came down. And text message costs in the UAE, where Etisalat is based, are higher than in Israel. Ditto for many of the other places mentioned above.
In fact, many of the third world countries where Facebook has these “deals” are one-company towns, where service is extremely limited, and text messages are very expensive. For the record, text messages cost an average of 11￠ in Benin, 7￠ in South Africa, and about 4.5￠ in Israel for subscribers who have phone/SMS packages. So the too-expensive text message story, while plausible, really isn’t convincing.
And then there’s “Palestine” – which, as mentioned, does not exist as an entity (the correct UN-approved name for the entity that controls parts of the West Bank is “The Palestinian Authority.”) Where there’s smoke, there’s fire – and use of the term “Palestine” under current political conditions is usually an indication of a political agenda.
According to this view, Facebook isn’t losing out on anything – after all, as mentioned, all the services are available in the Facebook app – but this way, the company avoids offending people who blanch at the word “Israel.” It’s a win-win – for Facebook, at least.
So, do we write that letter, or not? It would take the wisdom of a Solomon – or a Mark Zuckerberg – to solve this one. Unfortunately, we’re on our own here – Facebook has still not responded to numerous, and increasingly desperate, messages for a comment, explanation, or response. If such comes in, you’ll be the first to know.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/does-facebook-like-israel-it-depends-on-who-you-ask/