Julian Schnabel must have known that screening a film about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the United Nations General Assembly would be scene-stealing. To set the town talking, the event would unite all the trappings — provocative subject matter, prestigious venue, Hollywood glamour.

Comi-Con is where the weirdly insane go to meet the insanely weird a few years or so before they become internet millionaires and billionaires selling smartphone applications to help people more easily avoid talking to each other. Which is just what the Middle East needs.

Inspired by the successful use of social media to fuel popular protests in Egypt and elsewhere, the intifada fan page had amassed more than 300,000 "likes" from users for its proposed May 15 uprising before disappearing Tuesday.

Facebook on Tuesday removed a page calling on Palestinians to take up arms against Israel, following a high-profile Israeli appeal to the popular social-networking site. The page, titled "Third Palestinian Intifada," had more than 350,000 fans before it was taken down.

The powers that be at the social networking giant, Facebook, decided the "Third Palestinian Intifada" page will not be removed, despite requests from Israel, the Anti-Defamation League and others.

Two days after using Flickr to display photos of police officers from Egypt’s feared state security force, Hossam el-Hamalawy watched in disbelief as they vanished, one by one, from the popular social networking site, which he had been using since 2008.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has "reached out to Facebook" to remove a "cause" page entitled "Third Palestinian Intifada," saying the page constitutes "an appaling abuse of technology to promote terrorist violence." According to an official statement, the ADL's request has not been met.

As anti-government unrest continues to ripple across the Middle East, many in Israel are worried that changes in the Arab world could lead to renewed hostilities against them.