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<font size=4><b>Independent journalists dismantling Israel's hold on
media narrative <br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>Abraham Greenhouse, Nora Barrows-Friedman, <i>The
Electronic Intifada,</i> 15 June 2010 <br><br>
<a href="http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11340.shtml" eudora="autourl">
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11340.shtml<br><br>
</a>"The systematic attempt and very deliberate first priority for
the Israeli soldiers as they came on the ships was to shut down the
story, to confiscate all cameras, to shut down satellites, to smash the
CCTV cameras that were on the <i>Mavi Marmara</i>, to make sure that
nothing was going out. They were hellbent on controlling the story,"
commented Australian journalist Paul McGeough, one of the hundreds of
activists and reporters who witnessed the deadly morning attack on the
Gaza Freedom Flotilla on 31 May
("<a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/9/framing_the_narrative_israeli_commandos_seizes">
Framing the Narrative: Israeli Commandos Seize Videotape and Equipment
from Journalists After Deadly Raid</a>," Democracy Now, 9 June
2010). McGeough was one of at least 60 journalists aboard the flotilla
who were detained and their footage confiscated.<br><br>
Within hours of the Gaza-bound aid flotilla being intercepted and
besieged in international waters by Israeli commandos, who killed at
least nine -- some at point-blank range -- aboard the <i>Mavi
Marmara</i>, news of the bloody attack had spread across the globe. Rage,
condemnation and calls for an international investigation
followed.<br><br>
Meanwhile, Israel's campaign to spin the attack, distort the facts and
quell an outraged public was already in full swing. Concurrently,
activists and skeptical journalists began deconstructing the official
story and assembling evidence to uncover the truth behind the violent
deaths of activists on a humanitarian mission to the besieged Gaza
Strip.<br><br>
From the time the Israeli military apparently jammed the flotilla's
communications, and for the next 48 hours as survivors were held
incommunicado, their cameras and potentially incriminating footage
seized, Israel's account of the raid dominated international
headlines.<br><br>
Central to Israel's media strategy was the rapid release of selected
video and audio clips which, the government said, validated its claim
that passengers had violently attempted to kill troops without
provocation -- thereby forcing the soldiers to use live fire in
self-defense. However, the initially and most widely-distributed clips
bore signs of heavy editing, including the obscuring or removal of time
stamps.<br><br>
Although the clips apparently depicted passengers aboard the <i>Mavi
Marmara</i> hitting Israeli troops with poles and other objects, the
context of the images was completely unclear. It was impossible to
determine at what point during the assault the clips had been filmed,
raising questions about exactly which party had been acting in
self-defense. <br><br>
Al-Jazeera's Jamal Elshayyal, among others, corroborated accounts by
other flotilla passengers, including Israeli Knesset member Hanin Zoabi,
that the Israeli commandos had allegedly started firing before commandos
began rappelling to the deck of the ship
("<a href="http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3897396,00.html">
MK Zoabi: Israel wanted highest number of fatalities</a>," YNet, 1
June 2010;
"<a href="http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2010/06/06/kidnapped-israel-forsaken-britain">
Kidnapped by Israel, forsaken by Britain</a>," Al-Jazeera, 6 June
2010).<br><br>
These clips were quickly supplemented by footage put on YouTube, also
heavily edited, which Israel said had been taken from the ship's security
cameras and from the journalists whose equipment had been seized
("<a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/idfnadesk#p/c/D367B77C57326D3E/4/HZlSSaPT_OU">
Flotilla Rioters Prepare Rods, Slingshots, Broken Bottles and Metal
Objects to Attack IDF Soldiers</a>," 2 June 2010). The Israeli
military spokesperson's office also distributed numerous still images
allegedly documenting fighting on the deck.<br><br>
After the commandeered flotilla ships were brought to the Israeli port of
Ashdod and were unloaded, on 1 June the Israeli Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MFA) began distributing via the Flickr website photographs of
objects it said were found aboard. Materials the MFA classified as
"weapons"-- thus supposedly supporting its claim that activists
had planned to conduct a "lynching" of Israeli troops -- were
identifiable to the public as standard nautical equipment and kitchen
utensils
("<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/israel-mfa/sets/72157624179998488/">
Weapons found on Mavi Marmara</a>").<br><br>
In addition, the ships were inspected multiple times prior to setting
sail for Gaza, both by Turkish customs authorities and by an independent
security firm, and had been found at both points to contain no weapons,
according to a Free Gaza Movement press release
("<a href="http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/56-news/1201-did-israel-deliberately-murder-civilians-aboard-freedom-flotilla">
Did Israel deliberately murder civilians aboard Freedom
Flotilla?</a>," 3 June 2010). Participants also say that all
passengers were subject to thorough security checks before boarding,
regardless of where they embarked.<br><br>
These photographs of "weapons" became the first flashpoint in
the effort to analyze and expose inconsistencies in Israel's claims.
Shortly after the release of the images which appeared on the MFA's
official Flickr page on 1 June, commentators began calling attention to
the fact that several of the images included digitally-encoded
information indicating that they had been shot several years prior. The
MFA responded to this by modifying the dates, and issuing a statement
that one of its cameras had been incorrectly calibrated.<br><br>
While this claim can be neither confirmed nor disproved, the gaffe
exposed the fact that Israel's rush to promote its version of events in
the media was leading to significant mistakes and oversights. As
surviving flotilla passengers began to be released and expelled following
detention in Israel, the accounts they gave of events aboard the ships --
and on the <i>Mavi Marmara</i> in particular -- clearly diverged from the
official Israeli narrative.<br><br>
Journalists aboard the ship, some of whom had been able to broadcast via
satellite for a limited time during the assault, told interviewers that
they had been singled out for attack by Israeli troops. "We had
cameras round our necks and our press cards in our hands, but the
soldiers kept aiming the lasers of their guns at our eyes in order to
intimidate us," Turkish journalist Yuecel Velioglu of the AA news
agency told Reporters Without Borders
("<a href="http://en.rsf.org/israel-as-turkish-photographer-is-buried-09-06-2010,37701.html">
As Turkish photographer is buried, other journalists aboard flotilla
speak out</a>," 9 June 2010).<br><br>
In addition, much of the footage released by Israel (after heavy editing)
was taken from journalists aboard the ship after their equipment had been
confiscated. The move was strongly denounced by Israel's Foreign Press
Association (FPA), which stated on 4 June: "the use of this material
without permission from the relevant media organizations is a clear
violation of journalistic ethics and unacceptable."<br><br>
Determined not to allow the Israeli government to continue dominating
public discourse on the flotilla attack with its questionable version of
events, independent journalists around the world analyzed and identified
inconsistencies with the Israeli narrative. This work played a pivotal
role in making a more complete and accurate picture of the events
available to an English-speaking audience: the vast majority of
English-language corporate media outlets, with the notable exception of
Al-Jazeera English, simply took Israeli statements at face value and
conducted little or no investigative work to ascertain their
validity.<br><br>
<b>Images and the elimination of context<br><br>
</b>Another photograph released by the Israeli military spokesperson's
office aroused additional controversy when it began appearing in news
articles about the incident. The image, which featured an anonymous,
bearded man holding a curved knife, was generally presented with a
caption, also sourced from the Israeli military, claiming that the
knife-wielder was an activist aboard the <i>Mavi Marmara</i> photographed
after Israeli troops boarded the ship.<br><br>
Ali Abunimah, co-founder of The Electronic Intifada, immediately noticed
clear inconsistencies with the context of the photo, casting its veracity
into doubt. Abunimah pointed out on his blog that behind the man, natural
light could be seen streaming in through a window -- despite the fact
that the raid was conducted during pre-dawn hours. Additionally, the man
was surrounded by photographers who seemed unusually calm for onlookers
in the midst of a firefight
("<a href="http://aliabunimah.posterous.com/israeli-propaganda-photo-in-haaretz-of-man-wi">
Israeli propaganda photo in Haaretz of man with knife make no sense
#FreedomFlotilla</a>," 31 May 2010). Finally, a few days after the
image first appeared, the image was re-used in a video montage, published
on YouTube under the newly-registered handle
"gazaflotilliatruth", but this time with less cropping. In the
new version of the image, the bearded man can be seen to be sitting down,
not standing -- again, an unusual physical position to display during a
melee
("<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIp8PcZxXYQ&feature=player_embedded">
Gaza Flotillia - The Love Boat</a>," 2 June 2010).<br><br>
Investigative journalist Max Blumenthal reports that the Israeli
military-sourced caption -- repeatedly used by media outlets such as the
Israeli daily <i>Haaretz</i> -- indicated that the bearded man was
holding the knife after the commandos boarded the ship
("<a href="http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/06/nailed-again-under-pressure-idf-and-haaretz-retract-description-of-suspicious-idf-distributed-photo%22">
Nailed Again: IDF Description of Suspicious Photo It Distributed Is
Retracted</a>," 8 June 2010).<br><br>
Following his query to the Israeli military spokesman's office,
<i>Haaretz</i> "scrubbed its caption of the suspicious photo."
Blumenthal adds that <i>Haaretz</i> "did not mention the retraction,
probably assuming no one would notice. The retraction raises disturbing
questions about the level of coordination between the IDF [Israeli army]
and the Israeli media." Nor did they mention that the bearded man
was Yemeni Minister of Parliament Mohammad al-Hazmi, who was displaying
his ceremonial dagger -- an essential part of traditional Yemeni dress --
to "curious journalists and foreigners on the ship," as
Blumenthal points out, obviously well before the attack.<br><br>
<b>New accusations instantly dismantled<br><br>
</b>As the accounts of surviving passengers began receiving increased
attention in the mainstream Western press, Israel retaliated with a
series of increasingly dire accusations to discredit them. The serious
nature these accusations makes it difficult to understand why the Israeli
government would have waited so long to issue them. As journalists began
evaluating the new claims, they found Israel's supporting evidence to be
flimsy and periodically even nonexistent.<br><br>
One such accusation, published in a 2 June MFA press release, was that 40
Mavi Marmara passengers had been identified as mercenaries in the employ
of al-Qaeda
("<a href="http://dover.idf.il/IDF/English/News/today/10/06/0201.htm%22">
Attackers of the IDF soldiers found to be Al Qaeda mercenaries</a>,"
2 June 2010). Later that day, US State Department spokesperson Philip
Crowley said that his office could not validate Israel's story, and
independent journalists on the ground in Tel Aviv promptly set out to
investigate for themselves.<br><br>
Blumenthal and his colleague Lia Tarachansky were told bluntly by the
Israeli army's press office that the military didn't "have any
evidence" to support the MFA's contention. By the morning of 3 June,
all references to al-Qaeda had been removed from the online version of
the press release
("<a href="http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/06/under-scrutiny-idf-retracts-claims-about-flotillas-al-qaeda-links/%22">
Under Scrutiny IDF Retracts Claims About Flotillas Al Qaeda
Links</a>").<br><br>
More significantly, on 4 June, Israel released a YouTube clip which it
claimed was an excerpt from radio communications between the Israeli navy
and the <i>Mavi Marmara</i>. The clip included a voice telling the
Israelis to "go back to Auschwitz," and another voice stating
"We're helping Arabs go against the US," in response to Israeli
statements that the vessel was "approaching an area which is under a
naval blockade"
("<a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/idfnadesk#p/c/D367B77C57326D3E/2/pxY7Q7CvQPQ%22">
Flotilla Ship to Israeli Navy: "We're Helping Arabs Go Against the
US, Don't Forget 9/11 Guys</a>," 4 June 2010). The latter statement
was made in an accent resembling that of the American south, despite the
fact that no one from that region was present aboard any of the ships.
Numerous bloggers commented that the accents sounded as though they had
been faked, and ridiculed the quality of the apparent forgery.<br><br>
One of the flotilla organizers, US citizen Huwaida Arraf, was astonished
to find that the clip included her own voice as well -- even though she
had not been aboard the <i>Mavi Marmara</i>, but was on a different
vessel. Tel Aviv-based journalist and blogger Mya Guarnieri noted that
Arraf told the Bethlehem-based Maan News Agency that the clip of her
voice, saying "we have permission from the Gaza Port Authority to
enter," seemed to have been excerpted from communications during a
previous flotilla trip (there have been nine trips since 2008)
("<a href="http://www.myaguarnieri.com/2010/06/israel-under-fire-for-doctoring-flotilla-recordings%22">
Israel under fire for doctoring flotilla recordings</a>," 5 June
2010). "When they radioed us [on this trip], we were still 100 miles
away," Arraf remarked.<br><br>
Blumenthal called attention to the mysterious presence of Arraf and other
discrepancies in the clip in an article he posted on 4 June. The
following day, the MFA issued a statement admitting that the clip had
been substantially edited
("<a href="http://idfspokesperson.com/2010/06/05/clarificationcorrection-regarding-audio-transmission-between-israeli-navy-and-flotilla-on-31-may-2010-posted-on-5-june-2010">
Clarification/Correction Regarding Audio Transmission Between Israeli
Navy and Flotilla on 31 May 2010</a>," 5 June 2010). However, the
clip including the "Auschwitz" statement remains on the MFA
website in a new "unedited" version of the alleged
transmission.<br><br>
<b>High-tech sleuthing uncovers a web of deceit<br><br>
</b>Perhaps most damaging to the credibility of Israeli accounts was a
map published by Ali Abunimah on his blog and which was produced by using
archived transmissions of Automatic Identification System (AIS) data to
plot the position of the <i>Mavi Marmara</i> as it sailed on the morning
of the raid
("<a href="http://aliabunimah.posterous.com/mavi-marmara-was-heading-away-from-israelgaza">
Did Israel press on with bloody attack on Mavi Marmara even as ship fled
at full-speed?</a>," 7 June 2010). Using the map, Abunimah was able
to determine the location and heading of the ship as it broadcast updates
on its status. The map also plotted the position of the <i>Mavi
Marmara</i> at the exact points when surveillance camera footage from the
ship -- which Israel had released without obscured time stamps -- was
apparently recorded.<br><br>
According to AIS data, the <i>Mavi Marmara</i> had been heading south --
parallel to the Israeli coast and more than 80 miles from the shore --
until approximately 4:35am local time. At this point, the ship abruptly
turned west, heading away from the Gaza coast.<br><br>
The attack, which surviving passengers say began shortly after 4:00am,
was reported to Greek activists in direct communication with the ship at
some point before 4:51am. However, the time stamp seen in the released
security camera footage and described in a caption as being the point at
which "rioters initiate confrontation with Israeli soldiers,"
indicates that the clip was filmed at 5:03am. This is reinforced by the
fact that the sea is apparently lit by natural light, which would not
have been possible an hour earlier.<br><br>
This evidence directly contradicts Israeli claims regarding the sequence
and timing of events, and throws its overarching narrative into doubt.
While the vast majority of footage of the raid has been seized by Israel,
along the flotilla's Voyage Data Recorders (VDRs, the nautical equivalent
of aircraft's "black boxes"), activists have been diligently
archiving all available evidence to prevent Israel from altering or
destroying it. As more time stamped data becomes available, it will be
aggregated by activists and plotted on mapping applications not only to
help reveal what happened aboard the <i>Mavi Marmara</i>, but guarantee a
greater level of accountability when Israel responds to future
flotillas.<br><br>
A significant amount of data is already emerging. Several of the
survivors managed to conceal memory cards from their Israeli captors, the
contents of which they proceeded to make available to journalists upon
their return home. Some photos, published in the Turkish newspaper
<i>HaberTurk</i>, depict passengers administering medical care to wounded
Israeli soldiers and even protecting them from being photographed --
which seemed to contradict Israel's claims that passengers were intent on
a premeditated "lynching" of the Israeli commandoes
("<a href="http://www.internethaber.com/israilden-kacirilan-fotograflar-foto-galerisi-7784-p1.htm">
srail'den kaç r lan foto raflar</a>," 4 June 2010).<br><br>
Recently-released video clips from flotilla survivors show Israeli
soldiers kicking, beating and shooting passengers, including footage
which Turkey's Cihan News Agency says depicts the close-range killing of
Furkan Dogan, a 19-year-old US citizen, with automatic weaponry
("<a href="http://imeu.net/news/article0019211.shtml">Israeli
Soldiers Murdering Man Identified as Furkan Dogan</a>," 10 June
2010). An autopsy determined that Dogan was shot five times, including
once in the back and twice in the head from almost point-blank range.
Other footage shows helicopters hovering above the flotilla, with
apparent muzzle flashes and sounds of gunfire, supporting the survivors'
contention that commandos were already firing before boarding the
vessels, thus prompting the limited resistance demonstrated by terrified
passengers.<br><br>
<b>International vs. internal investigations<br><br>
</b>The Israeli government continues to reject the idea of an
international investigation in favor of pursuing its own. On 5 June, the
United Nation's Secretary General proposed an international panel to
examine the killing of nine flotilla passengers, but Israel's ambassador
to the US, Michael Oren, announced on FOX News the next day that Israel
would refuse "to be investigated by any international board"
("<a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,594095,00.html%22">
Transcript: Amb. Michael Oren on 'FNS'</a>," 7 June 2010).<br><br>
Those who demand an international probe have good reason to doubt
Israel's ability to investigate itself. According to Human Rights Watch
(HRW), which cited statistics from the Israeli human rights organization
Yesh Din, between 2000 and 2008, "Israeli soldiers in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories killed more than 2,000 Palestinian civilians not
involved in combat. Of 1,246 criminal investigations initiated during the
same period into suspected offenses of all kinds by soldiers against
Palestinian civilians, only 6 percent (78 cases) resulted in indictments.
Only 13 of those indictments charged soldiers with killing civilians. As
of September 2008, five soldiers had been convicted for the deaths of
four civilians"
("<a href="http://www.hrw.org/en/node/85900">Why No Justice in Gaza?
Israel Is Different, and so ...</a>," 1 October 2009).<br><br>
HRW found a similar pattern in cases stemming from Israel's infamous
three-week attack on Gaza beginning on 27 December 2008. The invasion,
which caused the deaths of more than 1,400 Palestinians, resulted in only
one criminal conviction -- for the theft of a credit card belonging to a
Palestinian family after soldiers looted their home.<br><br>
Regarding the flotilla attack, some sources in the Israeli government
have indicated that they would consider permitting one or more
international "observers" to be included in their internal
investigation. Governments around the world have insisted that this is
not an acceptable alternative to a genuine international investigation.
However, even a completely impartial group charged with investigating the
raid would be analyzing "evidence" (such as seized footage and
VDRs) that had been under the full control of the Israeli military since
the time of the assault.<br><br>
<b>Accountability and independent journalism<br><br>
</b>With little hope for a formal investigation with any degree of
credibility, independent journalists around the world have recognized the
need to mount their own. The work of independent journalists is achieving
a growing level of influence in the mainstream. And the story of the
<i>Mavi Marmara</i> killings, despite the unwillingness of many
professional reporters to publicly challenge Israel's version of events,
is no exception.<br><br>
"This is an issue where, in the flotilla incident, the legal and
moral circumstances of Israeli abuse were so flagrant and visible that
independent media have a greater opportunity of being heard," said
Richard Falk, international law expert and United Nations Special
Rapporteur for Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Should the UN or another impartial body mount an international probe, it
would "benefit greatly from [independent media's] active undertaking
to reinforce whatever investigation took place," Falk commented for
this story.<br><br>
Independent journalists were able to crack the wall of Israel's narrative
in the corporate media, like how they were able to circumvent Israel's
restrictions on establishment journalists during the winter 2008-09
attacks on Gaza. For nearly an hour on the morning of 5 June, most
mainstream reports about the status of the delayed fourth ship in the
flotilla that had included the <i>Mavi Marmara</i> relied almost
exclusively on information gleaned from messages shared between activists
and independent journalists via Twitter. The work of Abunimah and
Blumenthal in debunking much of the Israeli narrative was cited
extensively in a post by <i>The New York Times</i> blogger Robert Mackey
("<a href="http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/photographs-of-battered-israeli-commandos-show-new-side-of-raid%22">
Photographs of Battered Israeli Commandos Show New Side of
Raid</a>," 7 June 2010).<br><br>
On 10 June, a United Nations press conference was devoted to presenting
uncensored footage of the assault captured by filmmaker Iara Lee, which
promises to make global headlines with countless images contradicting the
Israeli version of events.<br><br>
Paul Larudee, a San Francisco Bay Area-based activist who participated in
the flotilla and endured a severe beating which required him to him to be
hospitalized, believes that the success of independent journalists in
unraveling Israel's disjointed narrative has had a transformative effect
on the popular consciousness.<br><br>
"Something's happening here. Perceptions begin to move,"
Larudee said. "People are getting it -- they understand that a
humanitarian aid convoy was attacked, and the passengers were defending
themselves, despite the spin that Israel is creating in the media. Israel
is not going to be able to keep this up much longer. It's all starting to
crumble."<br><br>
<i>Abraham Greenhouse is founder of the Palestine Freedom Project
(<a href="http://palestinefreedom.org/">palestinefreedom.org</a>), which
specializes in studying and providing support for the work of grassroots
Palestine solidarity activists worldwide.<br><br>
Nora Barrows-Friedman is an award-winning independent journalist, writing
for The Electronic Intifada, Inter Press Service, Truthout and other
outlets. She regularly reports from Palestine, where she also runs media
workshops for youth in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the occupied West
Bank.</i> <br><br>
<br>
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