Israel Threatens To Punish Journalists For Covering Gaza Flotilla

[Purveyor]

Hundreds of activists are preparing to set sail for Gaza from Greece this week in an effort to break the Israeli embargo on the Palestinian territory despite Israel's warnings that it will not allow the fleet to reach Gaza and will punish journalists who cover the news from the flotilla.

--CLIP
A warning to foreign journalists

On Sunday, Israel warned foreign journalists who sail on the flotilla that it could ban them from entering Israel for up to 10 years and confiscate their equipment, reports Israeli newspaper Haaretz. The warning, in a letter from the Government Press Office, says the flotilla is “a dangerous provocation that is being organized by Western and Islamic extremist elements to aid Hamas."

Flotilla participants are simulating encounters with the Israeli Navy, practicing for what is likely to happen on the three-day journey to Gaza, wrote Amira Hass, a columnist for the Israeli daily, Haaretz. She's in Greece, preparing to board the flotilla.

MORE...

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2011/0626/Israel-threatens-to-punish-journalists-for-covering-Gaza-flotilla?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+feeds%2Fcsm+%28Christian+Science+Monitor+|+All+Stories%29

[wellst0nev0ter]

1. Nice To See The Only Free Democracy In The Middle East In Action (n/t)Fr

[Dept of Beer]

2. Do they intend to bulldoze their homes and olive groves?

[Jefferson23]

3. Trying to look like the tough guy, all the while appearing the complete opposite.n/t

[Scurrilous]

4. Netanyahu: Israel will not allow flotilla to breach Gaza naval blockade

<snip>

"Israel will not allow any ships to breach its blockade of the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his inner cabinet yesterday, during a discussion of the Gaza-bound flotilla expected to set sail tomorrow.

Security officials and Foreign Ministry representatives informed the cabinet that Israel has no information indicating that terrorists or anyone affiliated with a terror group is planning to take part in the flotilla, said a government source. Nonetheless, there may be clashes between Israeli forces and some Arab activists aboard the ships.

Senior ministers will meet again today to continue discussing the flotilla.

"The critical mass of participants will include human rights activists from European Union countries, Canada and the United States," said a senior security official."

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/netanyahu-israel-will-not-allow-flotilla-to-breach-gaza-naval-blockade-1.369740

[classysassy]

5. Why are American tax dollars

spent to help that mad man supress freedom?We wonder why the entire third world hate America,we support a government that use the guns and ammo we give them to maim and kill innocent people.

[shira]

6. Good for Israel! n/t

[Ken Burch]

14. You're ok with Israel trying to stop coverage of a legitimate news story?

Are you saying that, if the IDF does it again, we should just take their word for it that they had to?

There's no difference between this and efforts in Palestine to censor news coverage.

[shira]

19. Israel should arrest these journo-activists for aiding and abetting Hamas terror vs. civilians.

Imagine you're Jewish and live in Israel with friends and family.

Hamas wants you dead.

These journo-activists want to help Hamas.

Fuck them.

[Ken Burch]

20. Wrong. They just want to tell the truth

It's been proven that keeping Gaza under siege can never lead to Gazans replacing Hamas with something more moderate(if that hasn't happened by now it can't happen and we both know it)it's been proven that excessive force was used on the Mavi Marmara crew(it's never self-defense to shoot a person in the back of the head) and those journalists on the boat are pro-human rights, not pro-Hamas.

What Hamas does does NOT justify everything the IDF does. And what the IDF and the government have done to Gaza will never get Shalit released if it hasn't led to that by now. History has proven that a people can't be starved into doing what you want them to do. Try human decency instead. You know the siege has totally failed, shira, and you know it can't work if it hasn't worked yet. Why defending not only the indefensible but the strategically useless?

[shira]

21. Oh yeah, the truth that those bashing the IDF on video last year were genuine peace activists?

....who were really pro-human rights, not pro-Hamas?

That truth needs to be reported?

Be honest, Ken.

[Ken Burch]

22. You make it sound like everyone on the boats was pro-Hamas

The Mavi Marmara did not set sail for the purpose of killing Jews. Those who oppose the siege of Gaza are not Nazis, shira.

And you know perfectly well that the siege doesn't protect Israeli civilians anyway. If it did, the rockets would have totally stopped.

[shira]

24. There were about 30-40 pro-Hamasniks attacking the IDF. Not everyone onboard was pro-Hamas

What do you think of those 30-40? Pro-human rights peace activists, Ken?

And what do you think about a piece of shit like Gilad Atzmon speaking for the Audacity of Hope flotillistas?
http://ustogaza.org/events/u-s-boat-to-gaza-west-presents-gilad-atzmon/

Why aren't all the pro-peace, human rights folk getting the hell out of the flotilla after that stunt?

[Ken Burch]

27. If the flotillas stop, the siege stays in place forever.

There's simply no reason to keep the siege in place anymore. It can never make Gazans rise against Hamas if it hasn't done so by now(and you know it)and the fact that the rockets still get fired proves it doesn't even protect Israeli civilians.

[shira]

28. So no comment on the 30-40 pro Hamas flotillistas on the Marmara? Same WRT Gilad Atzmon?

Basically you're saying the siege is wrong regardless whether antisemites and pro-Hamasniks are trying to break it.

[Ken Burch]

29. You can't punish the people of Gaza because of Hamas and Atzmon

Atzmon is a deeply disturbed person. Hamas is just one part of the reality of Gaza.

Neither justify the IDF response to the flotillas.

If the siege was broken and a Palestinian state was already in existence, Hamas would be on the path to historical irrelevance. It's the siege that keeps Hamas alive. It's the Occupation of the West Bank that keeps the crazies going.

Face it, shira, the rigid hard line can't work if it hasn't worked by now.

[shira]

30. The siege isn't collective punishment. Also, Israel left Gaza and that STRENGTHENED Hamas...

...rather than weakening them. They sold the Gaza pullout to Palestinians as a victory for all their "resistance".

You don't know what you're talking about.

Further, about the only people supporting the breaking of the siege these days are the flotillistas. Ban Ki Moon of the UN and the FM of Turkey think Flotilla II is counterproductive.

[Ken Burch]

31. People of conscience all over the world oppose the siege

Millions of those who identify as "pro-Israel" do so as well.

You KNOW that the siege can never lead to Hamas' collapse. If it can't do that, how can you defend it at all?

History has shown that, if Hamas DID collapse, it could only be replaced by more extreme groups-it could NEVER be replaced by any group that would accept(because no Palestinian will ever accept permanent IDF garrisons in the Jordan Valley or Bibi's insistence that Israel must have the right to effectively revoke Palestinian independence anytime it wishes to do so, or the land swaps which could never give Palestinians ANY decent land in exchange for what they'd have to give up) the Likudnik/Kadimite peace terms you and the rest of the Right insist on.

And obviously, if it reduces the availability of food supplies to everyone in Gaza, the siege IS collective punishment. What the hell else could it be? You know the siege has never had any weakening effect on Hamas and hasn't stopped any rockets. The only things that can break this cycle is negotiations, and those have to include Hamas because Hamas can't be made to go away.)

It would have been enough to go after Hamas militants themselves. It was never fair to hold everyone in Gaza responsible for Hamas.

[Ignis]

23. Why bother arresting them, since they're so obviously guilty?

Why not simply board their ships in international waters and shoot them on sight?

Sounds like you agree with Joshua Trevino of RedState on this issue. Quelle surprise!

[shira]

25. LOL. Now you think I'm for shooting the journalists. You guys are riots. n/t

[Ignis]

26. So what should be done with those who aid and abet terrorists, as you claim?

Tickled with a feather? Made to write 100 times on the chalkboard? :shrug:

[bemildred]

7. No News is good News, eh?

When did it become a bad thing for journalists to cover the news?

[holdencaufield]

8. Balanced Journalism is ALWAYS a good idea

But, Israel is under no obligation to aid and abet slanted journalists with pre-written, anti-Israel diatribes that are no doubt already stored on their PowerBooks.

[bemildred]

9. As long as they don't kill them, I'm OK with it.

There is always that temptation to try to shut people up when you disagree with them.

[Ken Burch]

15. Nothing was pre-written about the Mavi Marmara story.

All the press did was truthfully report what actually occurred. You can't just assume that any news story that paints the Israeli military in a negative light is automatically a lie.

[pelsar]

17. actually we can....when the reporting norm is:

carpet bombing, starvation, concentration camps, apartheid, genocide, maniac generals who have no problem in sacrificing their own kids for their own promotions.....

and all accomplished by the IDF.....

the assumptions/ the default guilty parties are clear..and hamas and friends just love it, its doesn't matter what they do, or how gross an act, they know the press and their friends will find excuses for them.

[Violet_Crumble]

18. Freedom of the press is such a PC concept..

Look what happens when journalists are allowed to freely report on they think the public need to know about. When they showed the public in the 60's what was happening in Vietnam, chaos ensued!

on edit: fixed horribly clunky sentence...

[Purveyor]

10. UPDATE: Israel Backs Away From Threat To Flotilla Reporters

JERUSALEM | Mon Jun 27, 2011 10:49am EDT

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel backtracked on Monday on a threat to bar foreign journalists from entering the country for 10 years if they board a new international aid flotilla that plans to challenge the Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an official statement said, instructed authorities to exempt foreign reporters from "the usual policy applied to infiltrators and those who enter illegally."

In an email to foreign news organisations on Sunday, the Government Press Office (GPO) said journalists' participation in the flotilla would be "an intentional violation" of Israeli law that could result in a 10-year entry ban to Israel and confiscation of their equipment.

The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem had described the GPO's warning as a "chilling message" that raised questions about Israel's commitment to freedom of the press. Several Israeli legislators also condemned the GPO's move.

MORE...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/27/us-palestinians-israel-flotilla-idUSTRE75Q1MF20110627

[Jefferson23]

11. Ha ha, I wonder who got to him. n/t

[Scurrilous]

13. LOL

:thumbsup:

[Ken Burch]

16. Good. And it's embarassing that anyone here would back Bibi on that one.

There was never any excuse to try to censor news coverage on this story.

[Alamuti Lotus]

12. the (b)light unto the nations swings and misses...again.

In a way, it is quite refreshing to see the zionists and American fellow travelers treating this whole business as nothing short of a hostile, aggressive act of war -- in an age of spin, "true colours" are a beautiful sight... even if they induce vomiting and headstones.