Today I tuned in on an Institute for Middle East Understanding presser that included Huwaida Arraf, longtime Palestinian-American activist, and filmmaker Iara Lee relating their experiences in Israeli custody following their arrests on the flotilla.
Both women said that their recording equipment had been seized by the Israelis: blackberries, laptops, hard-drives, cameras, phones. And held by them. "We demand that all our equipment get returned to us," Iara Lee, who is described online as being Korean-Brazilian, said, and then she said that some of the passengers' recordings were being used, heavily edited, on the Israeli hasbara youtube broadcasts aimed at painting the flotilla as jihadists.
Arraf, who has American and Israeli citizenship, told of being freed at the port and refusing to get into an Israeli truck until her computer and phone were returned to her. She sat down on the floor. Then she was beaten and dragged and forced on to the truck, and dumped outside the port. Later she was treated for her injuries, which she now dismisses, as others suffered more.
What is our government doing about this? When will the passengers get their equipment back? What shape will it be in? Look, here is the Committee to Protect Journalists denouncing Israel's use of confiscated footage. And how can anyone trust the Israelis to conduct an investigation of this episode if they have already seized and misrepresented evidence so as to manipulate the court of international opinion?
Lee will be having a press briefing showing some uncensored footage of the flotilla tomorrow afternoon at the U.N. in New York.
There may be some relief available under U.S. law against Israel for their actions in this matter.
An American court awarded Jewish Americans a judgment against Iran for injuries suffered in a rocket attack in Israel. The plaintiffs are attempting to garnish priceless Iranian clay tablets held at University of Chicago, to pay the award.
and last February,
If Jewish Americans can bring suit against Iranian banks for allegedly financing weapons used by Hezbollah, then surely Americans can file suit against
Haim Saban
Sheldon Adelson
United Jewish Federation
Hagee Ministries
and other assorted feeders of the zionist monster
for financing the Israeli war machine.
That is ridiculous.
If that lawsuit won, then it would be a walk in the park to shut down the financiers of settlements in the occupied territories, seize their assets and charge for punitive damages in light of actively funding a program that is against int’l and American law.
SHERBRSI- I agree. Laws are enacted and enforced to protect the powerful, not peace and justice activists. I have no idea how the myth of “justice” came to be believed. The cards are stacked.
If Obama agrees to give Israel Helen Thomas, they are willing to return the cell phones in exchange.
And how can anyone trust the Israelis to conduct an investigation of this episode if they have already seized and misrepresented evidence so as to manipulate the court of international opinion?
They can’t, of course. But the US govt will pretend to believe any lies an Israeli invesigation dreams up.
Commit war crimes and then confiscate the evidence of the crime. Typical of the criminal mind. The only reason they didn’t kill everyone was because the world was watching them. The world is going to have to stop just watching, though, and do some serious leaning on these war criminals if there is to be an end to israeli war criminality.
If Israel was so sure what they were doing was legal why jam the Mavi Marmara’s communication systems, why confiscate all recording equipment and then release their selective clip of the Israeli soldiers hitting the deck.
That clip of Al Jazeera reporter Jamal El shayyal tells the other side for as long as he was able to tape.
Israel executed 9 individuals and loaded 30 bullets into their bodies many to the back of their heads at close range.
Israel is an apartheid state and our brutally trying to maintain their illegal settlements
“That is ridiculous.
If that lawsuit won, then it would be a walk in the park to shut down the financiers of settlements in the occupied territories, seize their assets and charge for punitive damages in light of actively funding a program that is against int’l and American law.”
Just how many pro-Palestinian lawyers, judges, or juries are you likely to find in America?
Yes, it’s ridiculous.
Sorry
- that should have read ‘honest and incorruptible (perhaps even) pro-Palestinian lawyers, judges, or juries are you likely to find in America?
It’s not so much a case of pro-Israel/Palestine as much the strength of the case and its basis in jurisdiction and applicability.
I don’t know if those who sued won or not, but the case presents an interesting avenue to explore the legality of the massive funding and support of Israeli settlement and construction being orchestrated by Zionist organizations and Jewish Zionists in America.
Purely on the basis of its legal backing, I imagine it should be trivial to outlaw the said financing of the settlements. How so?
1. The settlements are illegal according to Israeli law
2. The settlements are illegal according to int’l law
3. More importantly, the settlements are illegal according to American law
The lawsuit would only have to present these plain facts to make headway. It wouldn’t even need some elite lawyer or firm. The facts are pretty clear on the matter. Even if the case doesn’t go through, it is bound to create headlines on the policy by its inevitable resistance by Zionist groups.
Actually, it doesn’t cost a lot to find some dead-beat ambulance-chaser who’d put his name to some outrageous claim like:
Eighty five American, Israeli and Canadian victims of Hizbullah rocket attacks have filed an unprecedented lawsuit against the Central Bank of Iran (“CBI”), Bank Saderat Iran of Teheran and Bank Saderat, PLC of London. The suit, Kaplan v. Central Bank of Iran, was filed in federal court in Washington, D.C. and seeks $1 billion in compensatory damages and an unspecified sum of punitive damages.
There doesn’t even need to be a case to answer; just a hugely publicised claim, to hit the headlines.
And Israeli crimes would be a lot easier to prove.
I love the idea of getting devices back but, really, wouldn’t you prefer to get them back AS THEY WERE TAKEN and containing the same stuff in memory? Not deleted and not edited?
And without “meta-data” added to show that your stuff was actually photoed in 1937. And like that.
The Turkish government needs to get the Mari Marmura back and get their best forensic detectives on board.
Everything will be scrubbed clean before they get it back.