Opinion Editorials, August 2010

Al-Jazeerah, CCUN, August 19, 2010

GILAD ATZMON: BBC PANORAMA, AN EXEMPLARY WORK OF CLUMSY JOURNALISM

BBC’s Panorama failed yesterday in its attempt to cover the Israeli Massacre on the Mavi Marmara. 'Death on the Med' is an exemplary work of clumsy journalism. It broadcasted video footage stolen  from peace activists on board. It repeated Neocon terminology by referring to Islamic driven political activism as 'Islamism'. It promised to provide some new evidence. But, instead, it recycled footage presented by the Israeli military that has long since been proven (and admitted as) faked.  

To Watch BBC Panorama;

Pt 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXrzF0IOQYE

Pt 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfo91FQVr7M

The BBC also failed to present its viewers with clips that have been available on the world wide web for months now.  Namely footage of the moment an Israeli 'commando' executed  Furkan Dogan, aged 19, on the upper deck. No mention either that Furkhan was not a terrorist but merely in his senior year at Kayseri High School, where he was awaiting the results of his university entrance exams. He hoped to become a doctor.  

Watch  IDF commandos executing Furkan Dogan, a clip BBC skipped for some peculiar reason:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi6c10ntFZk

Instead, we heard Israeli commandos repeating the usual stories about IDF soldiers  shooting passengers only in the limbs. And that dear friends only after extreme 'provocation'.  As we all know 9  peace activists died on the Mavi Marmara, peppered with IDF  bullets-  to the head and chest area.

The BBC also reported one Israeli commandos assertion that he was 'badly wounded'. If you are bothered to  see the documentary you will see a footage of a single  Israeli soldier’s hands lightly  scratched. Yet we won’t see medical records to prove (as asserted) 'severe blood loss' nor did the soldier offer to show his no doubt serious scars to Ms Corbin. Did she even due her basic duty as a documentary maker and ask to see evidence of such injuries?

The BBC found a footage of a ‘potential shaid’.  A Turkish passenger is presented saying  that if needed, he would confront the Israelis because peace for Palestinians is being ignored on the international stage. He said that he would even be willing to give his life for the proud cause of justice and freedom. A reasonable, honourable statement. Especially in retro-perspective taking  into consideration the fact that the Gaza Flotilla was attacked in international waters.  

There is one very positive aspect  to the BBC documentary. It gave us a glimpse into the Israeli desperation. Never in the past would Israel's leaders consider letting anyone near its Fleet 13 commando unit.  Now, their bored, probably terrified recruits put on glamorous Hollywood style mock 'boardings' for even a lowly (once upon a time despised) BBC crew. Proof - the Israelis are losing ground.  

Interestingly, the Israeli Commandos being interviewed by Panorama were kept hidden from the camera, their anonymity safely preserved. All viewers of the pathetic  Hasbara attempt glimpsed were silhouettes or profiles. 

We should know why. 

Being war criminals they have much to hide. 

Watch Israeli Hasbara  footage exposed as a studio generated  fake:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WW2R4Iw5afc

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A Beautiful Gift from the BBC By Ken O'Keefe

A beautiful gift from the BBC by Ken O'Keefe

http://uprootedpalestinians.blogspot.com/2010/08/beautiful-gift-from-bbc-by-ken-okeefe.html

If you haven't seen it, look for BBC Panorama’s "Death in the Med" program online, you will be treated to first class propaganda as only the BBC can deliver.

I am one of the passengers/witnesses interviewed for this program and I am very much aware of BBC's role in justifying war and covering up Israeli crimes. I am in no way naive about this; to the contrary my motivation for the interview lay largely in the all too likely opportunity to expose the BBC. A relevant job considering the BBC's role in the slaughter of over one million Iraqi's, a direct role by virtue of the war they justified. BBC from start to present, justifying Iraq, a massive war crime and crime against humanity based entirely on lies (propagated intensely by the BBC). The British Broadcasting Corporation, synonymous with millions of orphans and refugees and countless lives destroyed in Iraq, beating the drums of war without pause, the ultimate prostitutes of propaganda.

With this understanding I solicited an agreement with the BBC producers, in return for my interview the program would include the fact that we disarmed, captured and ultimately released three Israeli commandos (after giving them medical attention no less). That was the deal, a deal I made with an audio recorder in service. http://www.facebook.com/1worldcitizen#!/video/video.php?v=1440199638883

And yes the poor Israeli commandos were beaten, just as any invader in any capable persons home would be beaten. I take no issue with that fact.

But truth be told, the commandos we captured should thank us for their lives. I ask the Israeli's, British and American people specifically, if your home was invaded, your family being murdered, would you be willing to disarm, completely control, and then set a murderer of your family free???

You can lie to yourself if you like, bury that head right down deep in the sand, but that ship was our home, and we were all brothers and sisters, aunties and uncles, united, a family, engaged in a most righteous cause, with the vast majority of the planet behind us. The primary beneficiary of our mission, over 800,000 innocent children.

For those lost in a pit of ignorance and indoctrination, those currently stripped of all reason, absent of conscience, duped and hoodwinked, I know you very well because I was once you, a US Marine robot volunteering to kill or be killed. I see my past self in the Zionist who has no capacity at this moment to think, for in that state it is all about regurgitation, independent thought is but a possibility. For you I maintain no hate, for nobody actually, rather it is pity, pity for you that you sacrifice the greatest gift of all, the gift of humanity.

And so it is that the BBC, absent of integrity, contemptuous of humanity, attempts in this program to turn disarmed, helpless Israeli commandos into heroic self-rescuing commandos who managed to Superman their way out of a circle of well over 100 very motivated men whose brothers lay murdered with multiple gunshot wounds. That is what we call a bald-faced lie. Big time lie, in your face lie, you in the audience are a bunch of drooling idiots lie.

Returning from the Zionist alternate universe, we held in our power the fate of three boy commandos who may well have been murderers on that night. Think about that, under these circumstances, we let them go. That is what we call preserving life.

It is not that BBC does not know the truth, there are literally hundreds of witnesses and overflowing facts to reveal it; it is simply BBC's slavish duty to produce a Zionist storyline of illusions and deceptions. And the story goes that we are the aggressors, “terrorists”, “extremists” and killers. Only in this context can the poor Israeli commandos be victims. How is it possible to dominate and control commandos simply to let them go if we are killers? Answer, it isn't. And that is precisely why Panorama blatantly lied.

Ah but the irony, the kind of irony that always provides me a smile from the inside out, the irony of these lies being big, beautiful gifts. In all sincerity, thank you BBC.

The BBC says there is doubt as to who fired first. There is no doubt at all who shot who and when to the hundreds of us on the Mavi Marmara and other ships. The Israelis have said we shot at them, well where are their gunshot wounds? And even if you have gunshot wounds, how do we know you did not shoot yourselves? Exactly like you did in "Operation Cast Lead"?

Returning once again from the Zionist alternate universe, the Israeli military attacked in international waters and murdered within the first five minutes of the attack. The attack resulting in scores of gunshot wounds and death in rapid succession. Blood spilling all over the ship. In that environment I took possession of a 9mm pistol that I removed from one of the commandos... and I emptied it of the (real) bullets. Other weapons were seized by other brothers and thrown into the sea, one of which was an assault rifle. Yet when others and myself had the power to end life, and believe me it was as simple as release the safety, point, shoot, over. Instead we preserved life, by taking those weapons away from established killers, we prevented them from killing more. We literally saved our lives and their lives. That is what we call cold, hard facts.

We could have taken out at least three of them, but we did not. Nope, we let them go.

The BBC mentions that we were in international waters at the very end of the story, as if this were an insignificant fact. The fact that Israel stole all the footage that it could, footage that undoubtedly shows them firing 4 bullets to the head of the 19-year-old American passenger, Furkan Dogan. No problem. Executing people at close range, no worries. The fact that the blockade itself is illegal, nah, don't mention that. 800,000 plus children in Gaza, malnourished, anemic, traumatised... not important.

I would need to review this program many times over to identify every poisoned tactic that the BBC employed in order to do what they do so well, justify murder and war.

Nevertheless BBC's perversion of the truth will elevate the cause of justice immensely, delegitimizing itself in such grand fashion was indeed a great big gift.

Hats off to ya BBC!

Ken O'Keefe

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Action Alert – Panorama ‘Death on the Med’ - Contact the BBC

Last night, the BBC broadcast a Panorama programme entitled ‘Death on the Med’.

It claimed to reveal ‘what really happened’ when Israeli commandoes boarded the Mavi Marmara on 31 May 2010.

Watch the programme here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00thr24

The programme was extremely biased, portraying the activists on board as violent terrorists who set out to kill Israeli soldiers. 

Please write to the BBC asking the following questions: 

Why was Israel’s ‘right’ to board the ship presumed throughout the programme? Why did the programme completely fail to mention that Israel’s siege of Gaza has been declared illegal by the UN? The assumption was made that Israel has the right to blockade Gaza, while the motives of those attempting to break an illegal blockade were questioned.

 Why did Jane Corbin not mention the bombs, rockets and white phosphorus dropped on Gaza by Israel during Operation Cast Lead over a three week period in 2008/9, killing 1,400 people? She did, however, mention the ‘thousands of rockets’ fired from Gaza into Israel, but did not say over what time period.

Why was the Israeli evidence of how and when they killed the activists unquestioned? Activists who were on the top deck of the ship say the first person was killed – shot from a helicopter – before any Israeli had even landed on the deck. However, none of these activists were interviewed.

Activists shot footage of the Israeli attack, but their cameras, laptops and other recording equipment was taken by the Israelis and has not been returned. Why was this point not raised during the programme, or put to the Israeli spokespeople? Why were the autopsy reports – which reveal that each victim was shot several times at close range, in a way that can’t constitute self-defence – not used, or even mentioned?

Why was there no footage of the Israeli assaults on the activists – which led to nine deaths? Jane Corbin never questions the use of the word ‘terrorists’ to describe the activists, or their alleged willingness to attack the commandoes. Why does she then fail to examine why there were no fatalities or serious injuries among the Israeli commandoes, when these ‘terrorists’ were so willing to attack?

Why were there no interviews with any of the British activists on board the ship, or with any of the journalists who were on board? Why was it not pointed out that the IDF has admitted doctoring the audio footage used in the programme, that the BBC claims was broadcast from the captain's deck?

You can find more points to make on the PSC website at www.palestinecampaign.org and http://t.co/wxcKyPH  

Where to send your complaint: 

Online: BBC complaints link: Follow the link and fill out the online form: https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/

Ring: BBC complaint line number: 03700 100 212

Email: panorama.reply@bbc.co.uk

Write: BBC Panorama, MC4A1, Media Centre, Media Village, 201 Wood Lane, London, W12 7TQ.

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The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) aims to raise public awareness about the occupation of Palestine and the struggle of the Palestinian people. PSC seek to bring pressure on both the British and Israeli government to bring their policies in line with international law. PSC is an independent, non-governmental and non-party political organisation with members from communities across the UK. Join PSC today! 

Palestine Solidarity Campaign Box BM PSA London WC1N 3XX

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editor@aljazeerah.info & editor@ccun.org