Dimi Reider on Israeli Media Propaganda during Gaza War

Picking up on my previous post about Israel's cheerleader media, this article by Dimi Reider on the online journal, Index on Censorship is a great read. He talks about Keshev, the lack of coverage on the anti-war movement within Israel, and brain-jolting oxymorons by Tzipi Livni:

IDF statements are given as news items and the most extravagant quotes by the Israeli politicians are reported as they are. (The prize-holder for these is, undoubtedly, Tzipi Livni, with such profound statements as ‘a ceasefire would damage negotiations’ and ‘the war is necessary to promote peace.’)

See the full article here.


Photo taken from http://mparent7777.blogspot.com/2007/03/mass-media-propaganda-masquerades-as.html

Israel and its Cheerleading Media

Israeli attacks brought the death toll in Gaza to over 1300 Palestinians and the number of injured to 5300 Palestinians.

This war seems to be overwhelmingly supported by Israelis, all the Jewish political parties, and as I wish to expound on in more detail, by the media in Israel as well.

The recommendations of the State-appointed Winograd Commission (see summary interim and final reports), setup post-Lebanon War 2006 to investigate the shortcomings of that war, included that there be more political-military coordination and a prohibition of leaks. The media, in keeping with the recommendations of the Winograd Commission, and contrary to its role as the fourth estate that is supposed to place the government and those in power in check, is functioning as an overenthusiastic pom-pom queen of the State.

Keshev - The Center for the Protection of Democracy in Israel that monitored the conduct of the Israeli media during the Gaza war has reported that the Israeli media in the first days of the war was "enthusiastic" and "self-righteous", with sparse criticism of military operations and reports on the deaths of Palestinian civilians buried in the newspaper. Arabs protesting the war and calling for an end to the killing were seen as disloyal and violent! See Keshev's December 2008 report here. However, Keshev writes that the media could be patted on the back for giving decent coverage, compared to coverage during the Lebanon war, to diplomatic options alongside military ones. See January 2009 report here.

Keshev's reporting focused on the early period of the war. So criticism of media coverage was very limited. They did not touch upon the issue that the very premise for going to war should have been challenged in the Israeli media - that this was indeed a war on Palestinians and their national liberation and not on the official pretexts offered by the State. Or that this was the single most brutal attack on Palestinians to date and should be a moral red-light for the State to ask itself where the hell it is headed. Or at the very least allow for adequate coverage of the deaths of civilians in Gaza, in keeping with the ethical codes of the media. These should have been the questions posed by the Israeli media on its front pages, not buried inside the newspaper, chiefly in opinion columns not considered 'real' news by most readers.

Of course, the attack on the media can be gauged by the State's approach to the media in general during this war - in the killing of five journalists; in targeting media stations in the Gaza Strip including Al-Aqsa Television, the al-Johar Tower housing 20 news organisations and the Ash-Shuruq Tower housing various news agencies including Reuters, NBC, Fox News, Sky News, Al-Arabiya and Abu Dhabi TV; in preventing foreign journalists from entering the Gaza Strip; through police attacks on Arab journalists operating within the Green Line; in the arrest and prosecution of Al-Alam TV's (Press TV) journalists for not informing the military censor before reporting live developments. See the International Federation of Journalists' (IFJ) press releases here (Jan 15), here (Jan 14) and here (Jan 12).

When the team clears the field, and the cheerleaders are left standing alone with exhausted pom-poms, it is sincerely hoped that they reflect on what exactly they have been cheering. Killing? Murder? Destruction? And for what ultimate good?

Arab Parties - Balad and United List - Banned From Participating in Israeli Elections

Today, the Central Elections Committee voted overwhelmingly in favour to ban the Arab parties, Balad and The Arab United List for Change, from participating in the upcoming Israeli elections on February 10 after accusing the Arab parties of incitement, supporting terror groups, and refusing to recognise Israel's right to exist. See arabs48's article here.

The Arab parties have been vocal, as always, against the targeting of civilians and the belligerent forces of war, especially during this current war on Gaza, and in response have held a number of demonstrations. Furthermore, they have been calling for a number of years now for a state of all its citizens (see two documents reflecting this call - 'Future Vision' and 'Democratic Constitution') - that is, not a state based on ethno-cultural or racist particularities, but a democratic state where every citizen enjoys equal rights and protections, currently which Israel is not as it constitutionally accords the state to Jews to the exlusion of 18% of its citizenry, Arab Palestinians. The Committee has concluded that such demonstrations and such calls for a state of all its citizens either challenge Israel's right to exist, support terror groups or equal incitement!

These elections have been marked by more racist calls for population transfer of the Arabs in Israel from parties such as Yisrael Beitenu and National Union, and even traditionally 'left'/'liberal' parties, like Meretz, are tending to the center-right.

Hassan Jabareen, head of the legal NGO Adalah noted that at no time in the 20th century was any political party banned from running under the platform 'a state for all its citizens' except for the ANC in apartheid South Africa in the 1960s.

In the previous elections, the Balad party - then led by Azmi Bishara, who is currently in exile because he would be tried for treason should he return to Israel; such is the extent of his political persecution - was banned from running in the elections by the committee. The Israeli High Court of Justice overturned that decision and allowed the party to stand. Both parties are expected to file a similar case before the court shortly.

I think now the mask truly has come off. The 'only democratic' state in the Middle East is showing the world its true colours. Dissent is absolutely forbidden. Political dissent will not even be allowed the platform to run in elections! Come one, come all - come see the facade that has fallen apart!

Update: On January 21 The Supreme Court overturned the decision of the Central Elections Committee, allowing both parties to participate in the elections. Victory for democracy? I'm not so sure. Why does a political party that calls for a state for all its citizens and democracy for all have to petition a court to participate in elections? Why does the Arab minority who account for 18% of the population have to be threatened with losing political representation? And why do these parties, who are supposed to be among the people, working with their electorate, spreading their message, have to deal with a court case a few weeks before the election?

Israel Deliberately Targeting Civilians to Ensure Quiet Occupation

Around 40 people were killed, overwhelmingly civilian, in an Israeli attack on the UNRWA-run Al-Fakhora school in Jabaliya, Gaza on January 6. See here. As of now, there have been 660 Palestinians killed and close to 3000 injured. The majority of casualties are civilians. Around 50% are civilian women and children. See here.

According to Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor currently in Gaza, he has only seen a single fighter treated at the hospital but has witnessed hundreds of civilians. See here and check out his statement on CBS below. To paraphrase Gilbert, "This is a war on the civilian population of Gaza, not Hamas".



In my opinion, the goal of the state was always to dispel Palestinians from Palestine, and for those that remained, to keep them an occupied, docile, chaotic, illiterate, subjugated mass devoid of emancipatory sentiments that take the form of a genuine liberation movement. See in general the work of Nur Masalha, Ilan Pappe.

And it has been mostly successful - in having the PLO essentially work together with them in designing policy and life (of a subjugated people) for Palestinians, in signing agreements with Egypt and Jordan to neutralise emancipatory threats from outside their borders, and in having most international governments agree to the designation of unliquidated Palestinian liberation movements as terrorist organisations.

Unfortunately for Israel, Hamas is not playing the same game. It could very well play the same game if weakened enough, but it seems a genuinely emancipatory liberation and resistance movement.

In my opinion, Israel is deliberately targeting civilians to drive popular sentiment in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere against Hamas. In other words, Israel is targeting civilians in the Gaza Strip to deflect and neutralise sentiment, support and action for a genuine liberation of Palestinians from subjugation and occupation.

Enough is enough! The international community needs to act immediately to stop the aggression and to push for the State of Israel's leaders - Barak, Olmert, Livni and others - to be tried for war crimes for the (deliberate or not) targeting of civilians; I maintain that such attacks are reflective of a historical trend towards Palestinian emancipation and are evidenced by numbers, making such civilian attacks seem a deliberate policy.

For more on the colonial manoeuvrings to crush genuine Palestinian liberation movements see Azmi Bishara on al-Jazeera.

150,000 Palestinians in Israel Demonstrate Against Israeli Assault on Gaza

On Saturday, January 3 around 150,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel demonstrated in Sakhnin in support of the people of Gaza and in opposition to the Israeli aggression, which Saturday moved forward with a ground operation. The demonstration was organised by the Higher Monitoring Committee and was probably the largest demonstration in the community's history. See more here.

The following are photos from the demonstration, courtesy of the online news website, alarab.





Reports from Hamas say that 5 Israeli soldiers were killed and 29 injured as Israel began its ground operation in the Gaza Strip. Check out this website for immediate updates in Gaza from those in Gaza - http://www.paldfmedia.net/news.htm

Hamas exposes Israeli campaign of deception of Israelis, Palestinians and the world

With 5 Israelis dead, and over 425 Palestinians dead, 8,500% more Palestinians than Israelis suffering casualties (not factoring in the injured), we ask what started it?

These are the Israeli government's assertions:
- The war is on Hamas and not on the Palestinian people.
- Hamas broke the ceasefire and so instigated the attacks a week after its 6-month conclusion.
- The rockets that Hamas fires legitimate the response currently being undertaken by the Israelis.

Looking at each of these assertions, we see that in targetting mosques, businesses, civil establishments, the police force, the university, a hospital, homes - Israel may be hitting at the political wing of Hamas, but they are certainly also attacking Palestinian civilians who utilise, live in, live off and depend on these institutions and facilities. Further, civilians being killed are unarmed non-combatants, thus making such attacks war crimes in international humanitarian law. Second, the Palestinian people voted Hamas into power in January 2006, making Hamas the legitimate political representative of the people; even if the assertion that only Hamas was being targetted, which is false as the evidence shows, this would still be an attack on the Palestinian people's democratic choice of a political representative, thereby making it an attack on Palestinians in general.

Second, Israel broke the 6-month long ceasefire when it killed six Palestinians in Gaza on November 13 and prior to that on November 5 when it blew up a tunnel and also killed around six Palestinians. See the BBC here and Press TV here. Therefore, there is absolutely no truth to the assertion that Hamas broke the ceasefire. Another condition of the ceasefire was the opening up of the border crossings to allow in aid, medical supplies, fuel and food into Gaza. This was another violation on the part of the Israeli government who repeatedly closed the border crossings. Also important to note is that 49 Palestinians were killed by the Israelis during the ceasefire; Israel did not suffer a single casualty.

Finally, there is absolutely no 'proportion', a buzz word among the human rights activists sitting in comfortable chairs in the UN, between "homemade projectiles that make more noise than damage" and the Israeli response of a seige on Gaza preventing electricity, food, medicines, fuel and other essentials from reaching 1.4 million Gazans, not to mention the humiliation, uncertainty of death, and the terror instilled in those on the receiving end of such a policy.

And then at 1130am on December 27, sixty Israeli war planes dropped a hundred bombs on Gaza city, killing close to three hundred Palestinians. And the operation continues.

Video of Palestinians in Israel demonstrating in Support of our Gaza Brothers and Sisters; And Glimpse of Police Response

Courtesy of alarz tv.



Please come out and show your support and participate in the march in Sakhnin tomorrow, Saturday, January 3 at 1pm.

Ali Zeidan from Kfar Manda brutally assaulted by Israeli police

Last night, on New Years eve, Israeli police and special forces launched an unprovoked and brutal assault on Palestinian youth from the Galilee village of Kfar Manda in Israel while they were on their way to visiting a friend in the hospital in Nazareth.

Ali Zeidan and his friends were on their way to visiting a friend in hospital in Nazareth, but as the road was blocked due to ongoing events, police presence and demonstrations in Nazareth, they got out of their car to survey the situation. Only a couple of minutes had passed when they were attacked brutally by a large contingent of Israeli police and special forces. They assert they had done nothing to provoke the attack. While some friends managed to get away, Ali Zeidan was not so lucky. Partially unconcious, he was later taken by ambulance to a hospital. He suffered a broken hand and suffered serious injury above his eye and on his head.

The following are photos showing the beatings he received:





I picked up on this story on the online news website, alarab. This site has shown itself to provide better coverage on goings-on in the Palestinian community during the Gaza assault than the other up-to-the-minute news website for Palestinians in Israel, panet.co.il .

All photos are courtesy of alarab.co.il.

Gaza War: Developments in Nazareth and Israeli Police Violence on Arab Journalists and Demonstrators

During demonstrations by Palestinians in Israel against the attacks on Gaza, Palestinian journalists in Israel have also come under attack.

Two days ago (Dec 29), Jamal Amara (Editor of Online News website, 'Radar') and Raed Dellasheh (Reporter for the newspaper Fasl al-Maqal and the online news website www.arabs48.com) were both beaten and arrested by the Israeli police. These two journalists came under attack and were later arrested just doing their job in the Arab town of Kufr Kanna in Israel. They were eventually let go. Please see the following reports on the incident from arabs48 and alarab.

Yesterday (Dec 30), in the town of Nazareth, youth were demonstrating the Israeli war on Gaza following a larger demonstration held by the political party 'Jabha'/'Hadash' (the communist party that focuses on Jewish-Arab cooperation). The youth later lit fire to some wood and threw stones at the police building. In response, several hundreds of police showed up at the scene and started attacking the youth and firing tear gas and rubber bullets. They also used helicopters to chase down youth. In the end, around thirty youth were rounded up and arrested in Nazareth. It seems that a number of local media houses have decided not to report the incident. Common police practice when this happens are beatings and various forms of torture. Police have released the names of only 16 of those arrested; the other 14 we are unaware of them. The police say that because they are around 14-15 years old and so are not obligated to carry identity cards, they don't have information on them. As I've said, there seems to be a general quiet about this in the local media, as some have colluded with the authorities not to speak of the extent of police repression and force used on youth. However, these are two of the reports of the incident - from arabs48 and alarab.

It should be remembered that in the demonstrations that took place by Palestinians in Israel in support of the second intifada, Israeli police killed 12 Palestinian citizens of Israel. Known as the October 2000 events, various official state inquiries into the matter have yielded naught - to date, not a single person responsible for the deaths of innocent unarmed civilians (most of them youth) has been charged. See my earlier post here on October 2000 here.

As of 3:05pm local time, 390 in Gaza have been killed by Israeli strikes and over 1750 injured. See al-Jazeera here.

Gaza operation that took the lives of 282 was planned 6 months ago

Please see this article from Barak Ravid in Ha'aretz for more info:
Disinformation, secrecy and lies: How the Gaza offensive came about

	Long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public - all these stood behind the Israel Defense Forces "Cast Lead" operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, which began Saturday morning. The disinformation effort, according to defense officials, took Hamas by surprise and served to significantly increase the number of its casualties in the strike. Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. According to the sources, Barak maintained that although the lull would allow Hamas to prepare for a showdown with Israel, the Israeli army needed time to prepare, as well. Barak gave orders to carry out a comprehensive intelligence-gathering drive which sought to map out Hamas' security infrastructure, along with that of other militant organizations operating in the Strip. This intelligence-gathering effort brought back information about permanent bases, weapon silos, training camps, the homes of senior officials and coordinates for other facilities. The plan of action that was implemented in Operation Cast Lead remained only a blueprint until a month ago, when tensions soared after the IDF carried out an incursion into Gaza during the ceasefire to take out a tunnel which the army said was intended to facilitate an attack by Palestinian militants on IDF troops. On November 19, following dozens of Qassam rockets and mortar rounds which exploded on Israeli soil, the plan was brought for Barak's final approval. Last Thursday, on December 18, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the defense minister met at IDF headquarters in central Tel Aviv to approve the operation. However, they decided to put the mission on hold to see whether Hamas would hold its fire after the expiration of the ceasefire. They therefore put off bringing the plan for the cabinet's approval, but they did inform Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of the developments. That night, in speaking to the media, sources in the Prime Minister's Bureau said that "if the shooting from Gaza continues, the showdown with Hamas would be inevitable." On the weekend, several ministers in Olmert's cabinet inveighed against him and against Barak for not retaliating for Hamas' Qassam launches. "This chatter would have made Entebe or the Six Day War impossible," Barak said in responding to the accusations. The cabinet was eventually convened on Wednesday, but the Prime Minister's Bureau misinformed the media in stating the discussion would revolve around global jihad. The ministers learned only that morning that the discussion would actually pertain to the operation in Gaza. In its summary announcement for the discussion, the Prime Minister's Bureau devoted one line to the situation in Gaza, compared to one whole page that concerned the outlawing of 35 Islamic organizations. What actually went on at the cabinet meeting was a five-hour discussion about the operation in which ministers were briefed about the various blueprints and plans of action. "It was a very detailed review," one minister said. The minister added: "Everyone fully understood what sort of period we were heading into and what sort of scenarios this could lead to. No one could say that he or she did not know what they were voting on." The minister also said that the discussion showed that the lessons of the Winograd Committee about the performance of decision-makers during the 2006 Second Lebanon War were "fully internalized." At the end of the discussion, the ministers unanimously voted in favor of the strike, leaving it for the prime minister, the defense minister and the foreign minister to work out the exact time. While Barak was working out the final details with the officers responsible for the operation, Livni went to Cairo to inform Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak, that Israel had decided to strike at Hamas. In parallel, Israel continued to send out disinformation in announcing it would open the crossings to the Gaza Strip and that Olmert would decide whether to launch the strike following three more deliberations on Sunday - one day after the actual order to launch the operation was issued. "Hamas evacuated all its headquarter personnel after the cabinet meeting on Wednesday," one defense official said, "but the organization sent its people back in when they heard that everything was put on hold until Sunday." The final decision was made on Friday morning, when Barak met with Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazi, the head of the Shin Bet Security Service Yuval Diskin and the head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, Amos Yadlin. Barak sat down with Olmert and Livni several hours later for a final meeting, in which the trio gave the air force its orders. On Friday night and on Saturday morning, opposition leaders and prominent political figures were informed about the impending strike, including Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, Yisrael Beuiteinu's Avigdor Liebermen, Haim Oron from Meretz and President Shimon Peres, along with Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik.