Court rejects petition to block anti-Islam film trailer in Israel

Judge says Google-owned YouTube was not included as a respondent in the proceedings

The Jerusalem District Court on Monday rejected a petition filed by MK Taleb el-Sana (United Arab List) and a group of Arab public figures demanding that Google remove the trailer for “Innocence of Muslims” from YouTube Israel.

Justice Miriam Mizrahi acknowledged that the video was offensive. But she dismissed the petition because YouTube itself was not included as a respondent in the petition — only YouTube’s owner, Google Inc., she noted. She added that removing the video from the site would not prevent people from accessing it on other sites.

Google has blocked access to the video in a number of Muslim countries, including Libya and Egypt, following violence there, and in Indonesia and India because, it said, the video broke laws in those countries.

Courts in Russia and Turkey have also banned the “Innocence of Muslims” trailer.

Dozens of people have been killed in violence linked to protests over the film, which depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a child molester.