The Index of Racism and Incitement in Israeli social media for 2018 showed Monday a shocking rise in incitement and Israeli racism against Palestinians and Arabs on social networks in 2017 and 2018. The findings came to counter Israeli government claims against the Palestinian Authority that it was stoking incitement against Jews. The index, prepared annually by “7amleh – Arab Center for Social Media Advancement”, showed that 474,250 posts of incitement against Palestinians and Arabs were written during those two years. It said the rate of racism and hate online has increased since 2017 and an inciting post was published every 66 seconds in 2018, up from every 71 seconds in 2017. Palestinian politicians and Palestinians Citizens of Israel are most vulnerable to incitement and hate speech via Facebook, mainly over legislation about the controversial Nation-State Law. “The most hate and racism in 2018 was directed at Palestinian members of the Israeli Knesset and their political parties in Israel during the discussions and passing of the Nation-State Law, which gives rights to only Jewish citizens,” the index revealed. It said that from all of the posts about Arabs, 1 out of 10 included an insult or an invitation to violence against Palestinians in 2018, compared to 1 out of 9 in 2017. The index also revealed that in May 2018, a few months before the Nation-State Law was passed, more than 115,000 posts including insults, racism and calls for violence against Palestinians were published on social networks. “Half of the inciting posts published in social media networks used by Israelis during 2018 were related to politics,” it said. Following the release of the 2018 Index of Racism, Nadeem Nashif, General Director of 7amleh, said: “The Israeli government bears responsibility for the continued and increasing incitement against Arabs and Palestinians on social networks." Facebook remains the main source of violence and incitement online, he added.