The lies that the IDF and the Israeli propaganda machinery try desperately to force-feed to major media outlets can only be countered by the accounts of their victims.
Tag Archives: Israeli propaganda
Petting a Troll
It was a few years ago that this article came out: Israel recruits ‘army of bloggers’ to combat anti-Zionist Web sites. Prison Planet, among tons of others, mentioned it too. I only read about it today. I’m not one to quickly believe what I read. I also found THIS VIDEO.
But it seems the trolls have spawned and one discovered my blog. Last week, thudding about, spitting odd and flammable words, this troll sent me a number of “comments” in the form of lectures in “how dare you” tones because of a poem I wrote for Palestinian Hunger Striker Samer Issawi. The twisted logic could have made the most intricate pretzels, but I have given up eating pretzels when I found out that my favourite ones were made in Israel.
Here is one “comment” I received:
| Rachamim Ben Ami marizownsme@yahoo.com 74.82.68.160 |
Submitted on 2013/01/29 at 20:39 | In reply to matangmanok.
Are you claiming that Israel has an institutional policy that aims to kill civilians? Let me simplify it for you. Israel kills civilians as a byproduct of legitimate military operations that seek to neutralise terrorists and their infrastructure. When Israel undertakes military operations, for example, Operation Pillar of Defence in Gaza recently, it makes hundreds of thousands of computer generated cellular phone calls warning Gazans of an impending attack and warning them to take cover. It drops tens of thousands of leaflets in targetted areas also warning civilians, it hijacks Gazan television, radio and internet to warn civilians and it Roof Knocks, drops a non-lethal shell on a targetted building. It makes a very loud sound and serves as a 10 minute warning to get out of the building. In Operation Pillar of Defence between 50 and 94 civilians died out of a population of 2.3 million who live in the most densely populated area on the planet- literally. HAMAS on the other hand states quite clearly in its Charter that it aims to kill not only all Israelis but every Jew on the planet. Then, having expressed their intention repeatedly, they purposely attack civilians. Do you see the difference? |
-o-
I will spare you the racist remarks he threw my way. I just feel very sorry for him. He obviously loves his guns. He must sleep with at least a dozen so that when he gets woken up by the cooing of doves he can quickly silence them. I hope I don’t hurt his feelings. Such fragile creatures need a special kind of love.
Hatred and prejudice, among a lot of other things, are taught. It takes a lifetime to unlearn them. One has to start somewhere. I don’t take this comment lightly.
I always leave a door, or at least a window, open. One never knows what the next breeze may bring.
Trawling around the internet, I bumped into this image that made me laugh:
From The Palestinian Activists Handbook
“Operation Cast Lead” is not the Title of a Movie
“Operation Cast Lead” is not the Title of a Movie
After a night of gasping
at fireworks
I nurse the consequences
of champagne.
Somewhere else they are remembering
smoke that takes forever
to clear, the ringing in the ears,
the smell of burnt flesh
among personal belongings.
-o-
“Operation Cast Lead” on Wikipedia (as always, don’t place complete trust on one source, please)
SECOND Viva Palestina aid convoy enters Gaza
from PRESSTV
The Viva Palestina humanitarian convoy enters the Gaza Strip, breaking the deadly Israeli blockade imposed on 1.5 million Palestinians for a second time.
The American aid convoy carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of supplies for the people of Gaza crossed the Rafah border on Wednesday upon receiving permission from Cairo after a 10-day delay.
The 200 activists are allowed to stay in the coastal territory only for 24 hours, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Viva Palestina activists, all Americans, including Charles Barron, a New York City Councilman, say that they have been stranded on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing for about 10 days despite earlier arrangements.
The humanitarian aid convoy consisting of 50 vehicles is the second organized by British Member of Parliament and Press TV presenter George Galloway.
George Galloway writes to the Charity Commission
I have become increasingly concerned about the abuse of your powers displayed in your brazenly obvious political double standards. About your attempts, under the guise of regulating British charities, to police the democratic efforts of political activists in Britain in a way never envisaged by parliament. About your preparedness to waste large sums of public money in political stunts, either at the behest of others or in the hope that you are properly anticipating their wishes. And above all, in the context of this issue, your almost laughably obvious prejudice against the Palestinian cause and against Britain ‘s two million-strong Muslim community.
Closed Zone
Here is the writeup from YouTube on this interesting animation:
The new animated film created by Yoni Goodman, Director of Animation for the Academy Award-nominated film “Waltz with Bashir”, together with the human rights group Gisha. “Closed Zone” shows the closure of the Gaza Strip and its effects on the ability of 1.5 million human beings living there to fulfill their daily needs, as well as their dreams and aspirations. More details and videos at www.closedzone.com
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I hope they release “Waltz with Bashir” in this country.
Mission Accomplished?
Do not let us go into that darkness with bare hands.
If you do, we shall claw our way out,
leave our nails on the back of the beast
that bears your face.
We know you and your caress
even as you pass
judgment upon our children
who are yet to know anger,
Grief with flailing arms,
solitude gone astray
among the ruined fabrics
of our homes.
When will you allow us
time and space to build
our own rooms of healing
that do not bear your name?
How can we, when every day you cast
the weight of your shadows on our lands,
bleed us of what lies beneath our feet,
speak to us with the language of corpses.
With eyes seared by your weapons
we stand
staring at all you have stolen
that can never be returned.
-o-
Yvonne Ridley Reports
Yvonne Ridley reports from Viva Palestina
9th March 2009
GAZA OR BUST
The last 24 hours have probably been the blackest since the Viva Palestina convoy set off from London.
Yesterday the convoy members became the target of an orchestrated wave of violence first started by Egyptian police and then culminating in vicious attacks by unknown thugs.
The end result was a number of peace activists whose only aim is to take humanitarian aid into war torn Gaza were treated in hospital for head injuries.
Mercifully the string of casualties was not too serious but the experience denied us the chance of fulfilling our mission to deliver aid to Gaza yesterday.
And dramatic images of the rioting and attacks could not be relayed to Press TV viewers because someone sabotaged the satellite van by deliberately cutting through a vital cable which would have beamed the shameful attacks across the world.
However, every cloud has a silver lining and I would like to take this opportunity of personally thanking the Egyptian authorities and those dark forces who tried to derail Viva Palestina.
The event has only served to make us stronger, unite and bond us together more and created a wave of international media interest in Viva Palestina.
I think it would be fair to say that when you bring a diverse group of 300 plus people together on a gruelling mission to cover 5,000 miles driving across North Africa the result can result in a less than harmonious state of affairs.
To be frank, there was friction and infighting and some of us generally got on each other’s nerves as you would when you are confined to close quarters with challenging living, sleeping and eating conditions.
However, the deliberate bloody-mindedness of the Egyptian authorities did something we had failed to do for ourselves … it caused us to unite, bond and emerge stronger than ever from underneath the rows of police batons, bricks, bottles and stones.
The trouble began when the police – who were only obeying their orders – tried to break up the convoy into small groups of medical and non medical aid. We were told the first would go through the Rafah crossing while the latter would go through an Israeli checkpoint.
This was never going to be accepted by anyone on board the convoy. Our aim from the outset was simple: Rafah or bust.
Giving aid to the people of Gaza has nothing to do with the Israelis and I do wish they would stop trying to make themselves centre stage in an affair that does not involve Tel Aviv.
As we dug in our heels about the convoy being physically divided, the authorities decided there was only one solution – batter us into submission, after all that is what police states do.
And so, when the police tried to get physical, the convoy members followed their natural instincts and used passive resistance to defend themselves.
Egyptian police are obviously not used to confronting stroppy westerners in such large numbers and so they retreated while a second wave was sent in. Hundreds of riot squad officers, wearing visors, carrying shields and batons tumbled in to one of the two car parks in a large town centre compound in the port of al Arish and set about the unarmed peace activists.
They too were heroically repelled and what followed was an uneasy stand off as some convoy members received medical attention.
The net result was scores of vehicles had been able to escape the compound in which they were being held behind metal police barriers.
It was a minor victory and what followed was a very British response – the lads decided to have a game of football. I did try to persuade the Egyptian police to join in stressing they would have much more fun kicking a ball instead of kicking my comrades, but they seemed reluctant to let go of their batons.
As the night drew in the convoy leader George Galloway who was 40 kilometres down the road, was made aware of the battle of al Arish and so he refused to cross the Rafah Border in to Gaza and returned to the convoy.
It was a hard call to make as the international media had gathered at Rafah for a party that never happened. As usual the Israelis also played to stereotype by shelling and bombing parts of Gaza.
By the time Britain’s best known parliamentarian reached the compound night had fallen and bright stadium-style lights illuminated the two car parks.
Suddenly the area was plunged into darkness by a powercut which coincided with a brick, bottle and stone attacks on the convoy members by youths in their late teens and 20s. Seconds before the lights went out some convoy members saw a couple of unidentified men scrawling anti-Hamas slogans on lorries.
The lights remained out for some minutes, during which time the vicious attack was unleashed – the whole proceedings failed to warrant one single Egyptian police officer to swing his baton into action.
Those who had wielded their sticks with such a passion before, stood impassively by and watched the onslaught.
The power kicked back in again and the bright lights illuminated the scene to reveal several convoy members lying dazed and confused, blood dripping from gaping head wounds.
While they were ferried to hospital for treatment, there was a second powercut and a repeat of the violence.
Once again the police stood by and watched the thugs launch their attacks on unarmed and defenceless members of Viva Palestina.
Galloway, incandescent with rage held an urgent meeting with the governor of the region and secured assurances this would not happen again. He also secured a pledge that the convoy would be allowed to make its way to the Rafah crossing for 6am on Monday.
We’re now only a few hours away from that deadline and it remains to be seen if the governor will keep his word.
But regardless of what he decides I want to thank him for pulling every single member of Viva Palestina into one, united front.
Thanks to him and the cack-handed police operation, Viva Palestina has emerged refocussed and stronger than ever with one, determined goal: Rafah or bust.
And it will happen, inspite of the best efforts of Tel Aviv meddling and Egyptian authorities’ bullying.
The people united can never be defeated.
Gaza, next stop.
* British journalist Yvonne Ridley and award-winning film-maker Hassan al Banna Ghani are on the Viva Palestina convoy making a documentary about the journey from London to Gaza. her website is http://www.yvonneridley.org and you can follow her updates by Twitter or Facebook
The Guardian Attacks Humanitarian Aid Convoy
An update on the humanitarian aid convoy.
This letter tells a lot about mainstream media’s not-so-subtle defense of Israel.
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From Rob Hoveman, House of Commons, Westminster, London SW1A 0AA
Re: Guardian article March 3, ‘ Galloway’s Gaza mission runs into protests’
It says everything we need to know about cynical journalism (March 3) that the first time the Guardian chooses to cover the Viva Palestina convoy of aid to Gaza – an epic journey of over 5,000 miles – it is to repeat as fact tittle tattle culled from the blogosphere.
Two hundred and eighty people have driven through eight different countries to deliver over a million pounds of aid to the stricken people of Gaza. Everywhere we have been, the convoy has been greeted with thousands of well-wishers who have provided food, fuel and accommodation.
The Algerian government allowed passage across the border with Morocco for the first time in 15 years. In Tunisia we were joined by six of the people who the Lancashire police wrongly arrested and detained, preventing them reaching London for the start of the journey.
In Libya we were celebrated by thousands on the streets and a Libyan charity, inspired by the convoy, has established its own convoy of trucks to Gaza.
We are currently negotiating entry into Egypt and passage through to Gaza. The Egyptian authorities are doing everything they can to assist the process and we are in their hands, as we have been with all the other governments whose countries we have crossed in order to take these vital supplies into Gaza.
The Viva Palestina convoy and the achievements of the 280 volunteers who have driven so far deserve celebration, not denigration by The Guardian.
Rob Hoveman
Assistant to George Galloway MP
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA
Matangmanok 