Israeli publicity machine cranks into gear over raid on Mavi Marmara

[laststeamtrain]

Israeli publicity machine cranks into gear over raid on Mavi Marmara

Activists on board flotilla remain silent following Israeli commando assault on convoy
Harriet Sherwood in Ashdod
guardian.co.uk, Monday 31 May 2010 19.57 BST

<snip>

Thick cables snaked across the ground from thrumming generators, delivering power to dozens of international TV crews, broadcasting across the globe against the backdrop of the shimmering Mediterranean.

Amid the crowd, a sophisticated public relations operation was underway. Spinners and spokesmen from the Israeli military and government departments politely answered questions and offered their own narrative of the day's events. A barrage of emails and text message alerts firing into inboxes provided a background of electronic muzak.


<snip>


His patient courtesy was not matched by all those gathered on the hill. Chaim Cohen, a 52-year-old economic consultant from Givatayim, was dripping with both sweat and bile. "We have come to support our soldiers. It is obvious it is a terrorist ship. We saw it on TV – they took out knives and put them in the stomachs of the IDF."

There was nothing to challenge the Israeli version of events. Repeated attempts to reach the cell and satellite phones of activists on board the flotilla were rebuffed; it was unclear whether their phones had been confiscated, jammed or if they were simply out of range.

By late afternoon on Monday, activists with lesser injuries were being brought to hospitals in coastal towns and cities from the smaller passenger ships. At the Barzilai medical centre in Ashkelon, just north of the Gaza Strip, a Greek man in a neck brace told reporters: "They hit me." Who? "Pirates," he answered.

A dazed man with a striking black eye was unloaded from an ambulance. There had been "some brutality" on board, he said, but the activists were non-violent. "We are all Palestinian now," he said as the doors of the ER closed behind him.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/31/publicity-machine-overdrive-mavi-assault

[Arrowhead2k1]

1. Those are the people we need to hear, the victims in all of this. nt

[azurnoir]

2. The Israeli PR/propaganda machine was waiting in the wings

already cranked, this was planned all of it including the killing of activists, read back over the stories of the past week on the I/P forum and it becomes obvious not to mention that the violence used against Pro-Palestinian activists has been escalating

[UndertheOcean]

3. That is all they have now : Propaganda , didn't help South Africa much

and like now , I am sure there were many apologists for SA at the time.