VIDEO: 'Internet killed Israeli PR' mocks flotilla response

Ma'an - A YouTube video surfaced Thursday lampooning the Israeli military's public relations efforts following its 31 May raid on a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla that left nine crew members dead.

"Internet Killed Israeli PR" parodies The Buggles' 1979 "Radio Star" hit and features a mash-up of clips released by the Israeli army and activists who were on board in the immediate aftermath of the raid in international waters.

The anonymous users who uploaded the video go by the handle Minor Demographic Threat, a throwback to a 1980s US punk band as well as a parody of Israel's race-based arguments against the right of return. MDT says its members are a multi-ethnic group predominantly of American and Israeli Jews, but also Palestinians and others.

"You could say 'Internet Killed Israeli PR' is our answer to [deputy managing editor of The Jerusalem Post Caroline Glick's] 'We Con The World,'" MDT told Ma'an on Thursday, referencing a pro-military music video that mocked the activists on board the Freedom Flotilla as well as Arabs in general which Israel's Government Press Office publicized but later distanced itself from.



(The video was banned from YouTube in Israel, France, and several other European states within hours of this posting. It is reproduced here for viewers from those countries.)


Gaza flotilla video mashup: Internet Killed Israeli PR

"We're gratified by the positive response to the video so far, and we hope people will share it and even make their own," MDT said, in a phone interview. "Video is an extremely powerful tool as is humor. When those intersect they can be used to an even greater effect."

The video was inspired by bloggers Philip Weiss, Max Blumenthal, and Ali Abunimah, who scrutinized the military's version of events and led to the army backtracking on some its stronger allegations.

The army released carefully edited video it seized from activists and journalists, insisting that the soldiers opened fire only after they were attacked by Islamist terrorists masquerading as peace activists.

Activists say the footage was distorted to tell only Israel's version of events, and the music video takes note of the controversy: "The Shin Bet mined my SD card/And played it back on NPR."

Press freedom groups, including the Foreign Press Association, have called on Israel to release all of the footage it seized from journalists and activists who were on board the Turkish-flagged Mavi Marmara.

The group urges fans to support pro-Palestinian advocate groups like Artists Against Apartheid, an international alliance of musicians who reject normalization with Israel until it ends its four-decade occupation of the Palestinian territories and allows refugees to return to their homes.

The mash-up "rightfully ridicules Israel's futile desperation to maintain a clean public image while carrying out rabid attacks on human rights on the ground (or in international waters)," Artists Against Apartheid music producer and engineer Andrew Felluss told Ma'an.

"This had been working OK for the Zionist movement, until now, when internet 2.0 is increasingly decimating its information power," the New York-based organizer wrote in an email message. "Now we are seeing this impotence in action, in real time, and the effect is quite hilarious."

The video debuted a day after the Israeli army's chief of staff told a state inquiry panel that his forces acted proportionally during the raid.

Gabi Ashkenazi, in his testimony before an internal probe headed by former Israeli chief justice Jacob Tirkel, said that "The commandos exhibited calm, bravery and morality."

High-ranking Israeli officials began testifying Monday, among them Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.