Israel's Facebook Campaign

The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reports, "The realization that young people are increasingly living life through their Facebook accounts recently gave birth to a new and potentially powerful tool in the fight for Israel's image." A group of 23 student from Hebrew University in Jerusalem have developed a software application which allows users to use the Facebook status line "to inform hundreds of thousands of users at any given moment about positive facts about Israel".

According to the article, "Israpedia, the Facebook application, automatically replaces run-of-the-mill musings or common tidbits with what the group's staff considers interesting though little known facts about Israel, like the fact that it is the second biggest book publisher per capita in the world, or that it has over 200 wineries producing red, white and bubbly."

The application's superiority to "run-of-the-mill musings" is built-in. While "users can always override the Israpedia status line and write their own thing" such as "Taking in the views from the security fence" or "Bibi looks absolutely ravishing today", the developers explain, "If the new user-added line stays unchanged for two days, the Israpedia application will change it to an Israel fact." Their next goal is "to take the Israpedia lines and automatically turn them into messages in Twitter".

The more cynical among you might ponder this advance in social media in the same week that Israeli authorities removed any not-so-positive references to the Nakba, the 1948 displacement of Palestinians from their land and homes, in school textbooks.

I, on the other hand, will celebrate this achievement. After all, it's an improvement on January, when pro-Israeli users were destroying Facebook groups calling attention to the damage and civilian casualties caused by Israel's invasion of Gaza.

Palestine: Was There a Plot to Kill Yassir Arafat?

Last week, Farouk al-Kaddoumi (pictured), a senior Palestine Liberation Organization leader, told al-Jazeera that Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas played a role in Yassir Arafat’s death in 2004. He said that he had protocols from a 2004 meeting between Israeli, American and PA representatives that clearly indicated a plan to poison Arafat. He added that former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Mohammed Dahlan, the former Palestinian security chief in Gaza, were involved in the plot.

The first reaction to the story came last Wednesday. Mahmoud Abbas suspended the operations of al-Jazeera in the West Bank. The Information Ministry stated that the station’s operations were halted until a court ruled on the case. Walid Al Omary, Al-Jazeera’s bureau chief in Jerusalem, said: “We are sorry about this decision, which we consider a violation of freedom of expression and freedom of the press in this country.”

On Thursday, Abbas rejected the accusations and said that "Kaddoumi claims to be in possession of five-year-old documents that prove (his allegations), so why did he not reveal them immediately?" Abbas added that the "lie" was aimed at torpedoing the sixth Fatah Party General Congress, scheduled to convene August 4. He continued, "He (Kaddoumi) knows full well that this information is false; he has released it to undermine the convention, but we are continuing with the preparations."

While the Palestinian Authority was having problems with the Qatar-based station, the political risks of Abbas's decision increased with the entry of Hamas into the discussion. Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, accused the West Bank government of trying to silence the media and “cover up what is going on in the West Bank". Thus, the Arafat conspiracy theory was converted into a current political manoeuvre: Hamas is the "democratic" party seeking truth while its rival engages in "tyranny".

Gaza: Did Israelis Use Civilians as Human Shields?

This week, Breaking the Silence, the Israeli human rights organization, published a report, drawn from the statements of more than 30 soldiers, alleging mistreatment of Gazans in the effort to minimise Israeli casualties. One of the highlighted charges was the testimony of a soldier that Israeli commanders ordered the use of civilians as human shields.

Israeli officials responded immediately with criticisms. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said:

Public criticism of the IDF is inappropriate....Any criticism, information or reservations about the army's conduct should be addressed to me as the Defense Minister of the State of Israel and to the Israeli government which instructed the IDF to reinstate peace and security in southern Israel.

The Spokesman's Office for the Israeli Defense Forces said, "The IDF regrets the fact that a human rights organization would again present to the country and the world a report containing anonymous, generalized testimony without checking the details or their reliability, and without giving the IDF, as a matter of minimal fairness, the opportunity to check the matters and respond to them before publication." The Spokesman added: "A considerable portion of the testimony is based on rumors and secondhand accounts. Most of the incidents relate to anonymous testimony lacking in identifying details, and accordingly it is not possible to check the allegations on an individual basis in a way that would enable an investigation, confirmation or refutation."

Transcript:

Name: ***
Rank: ***
Unit: ***
Place of incident: ***
Description:

It was the first week of the war, fighting was intense, there were explosive charges to expose, tunnels in open spaces and armed men inside houses. Warfare was slow and basically a very small area was occupied. Every unit, every force had a rather small designated area of several dozen houses only, which they had to take over, and that took a whole week. That is warfare and that took a whole week. They really moved slowly. Close in on each house. The method used has a new name now - no longer 'neighbor procedure.' Now people are called 'Johnnie.' They're Palestinian civilians, and they're called Johnnies and there were civilians there who stayed in spite of the flyers the army distributed before it went in. Most people did leave, but some civilians stayed to watch over the houses. Perhaps they had nowhere else to go. Later we saw people there who could not walk, some simply stayed to keep watch. To every house we close in on, we send the neighbor in, 'the Johnnie,' and if there are armed men inside, we start, like working the 'pressure cooker' in the West Bank.

Every unit is familiar with a different kind of 'pressure cooker' practice. What do you mean by it?

I'm not sure either about the 'pressure cooker' procedures there, they could be different. Essentially the point was to get them out alive, go in, to catch the armed men. There weren't many encounters. Just a few. In one case, our men tried to get them to come out, then they opened fire, fired some anti-tank missiles at the house and at some point brought out a D-9, combat helicopters. There were three armed men inside. The helicopters fired anti-tank missiles and again the neighbor was sent in. At first he told them that nothing had happened to them yet, they were still in there. Again helicopters were summoned and fired, I don't know at what stage of escalation (in the use of force). The neighbor was sent in once again. He said that two were dead and one was still alive, so a D-9 was brought and started demolishing the house over him until the neighbor went in, the last armed man came out and was caught and passed on to the Shabak… The commanders tell what they saw and make sure we know how things work on the inside. They also talked about things that bothered them. They said that civilians were used to a greater extent than just sending them into houses. For example, some of them were made to smash walls with 5 kilo hammers. There was a wall around a yard where the force didn't want to use the gate, it needed an alternative opening for fear of booby-traps or any other device. So the "Johnnies" themselves were required to bang open another hole with a hammer. Talking of such things, by the way, there was a story published by Amira Hass in Haaretz daily newspaper, about Jebalya where a guy tells exactly the same thing. It's the guy who was sent. I saw him afterwards, the guy who was made to go into that house three times. He also told us about being given hammers to break walls.

So you say that, from your own experience, there's truth in these publications.

Yes. It was ludicrous to read it and then hear the response of the army spokesperson that the matter was investigated and there are no testimonies on the ground and that the Israeli army is a moral army. It raises doubts about the army spokesperson's responses in general when you know for a fact that these things actually did take place… Sometimes the force would enter while placing rifle barrels on a civilian's shoulder, advancing into a house and using him as a human shield. Commanders said these were the instructions and we had to do it… Anyway, at the concluding debriefing, he (the unit commander) said he didn't know about these things, and the guys, commanders who had been there the first week, said they saw civilians being assigned to break walls and enter with rifle barrels on their shoulders. He said he didn't know this and would look into it. I think nothing substantial had been done about it, I'm also in touch with one of the officers there at present and I don't know if an investigation was made and nothing was found or that nothing was cleared up. Several weeks later, the story came out in the paper about these exact incidents, where they were given hammers to break walls, in our area, this I can say with certainty.

British Revokes Arms Licenses to Israel: Does It Matter?

On Monday, the British Government stated that five arms export licenses, for the upkeep of gunboats sent to Israel, were being revoked because of the use of British materials during the recent Gaza War. The British Embassy in Tel Aviv stated, however, "There is no partial U.K. arms embargo on Israel… U.K. policy remains to assess all export licenses to Israel against the consolidated EU [European Union] and national arms export licensing criteria....We judged that in a small number of cases Israeli action in Operation Cast Lead would result in the export of those goods now contravening the consolidated criteria. These licenses have been revoked.”

Israeli officials claim that British arms are a small percentage of Israel’s supply, but London's move may have political implications. Some Israelis see Britain’s decision as an extension of anti-Semitic manipulations against “an aggrieved Israel". Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said,  "[It was] disappointing that there are certain sectors in Britain who have a biased and one-sided view of the situation, and look for every opportunity to hurt Israel."

There is a contrasting argument, however, that this is just a passing, token affair. Britain's limited revocation and Israel's reaction are gestures to satisfy international human rights organizations, activists, and members of Parliament. Indeed, the statement sent by the British Embassy to the Foreign Ministry of Israel indicates that the Government's decision was to stave off pressure from these groups. As the other 177 export licenses for arms to Israel proceed without restriction, one suspects that this affair is simply a little local difficulty.

Video: "Gaza Ship" Detainees Released by Israel

Audio on Hiding Gaza, Hiding Israel: The Jailing of Cynthia McKinney (and 20 Others)

Former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, and 19 other activists were freed by Israel after a week in detention. Their boat The Spirit of Humanity, carrying humanitarian aid for Gazans, was intercepted and boarded by Israel naval forces. The Free Gaza Movement reported that, despite the release,

Many passengers did not get all of their belongings back, many computers were stolen, some that were returned had their hard drives completely erased. Many of the pieces of camera equipment were not given back as well, and, of course, none of the tapes of the boarding, roughing up or incarceration of the 21 people who have been returned.

Thanks to Mondoweiss for posting the news and this video, from the Council on American-Islamic Relations:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d6UPOnxP5E[/youtube]