/2019-06

How Israeli spies are flooding Facebook and Twitter | The Electronic Intifada
▻https://electronicintifada.net/content/how-israeli-spies-are-flooding-facebook-and-twitter/27596

https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2019-06/yarden-ben-yosef.png?itok=AUeMqpWs

Act.IL is run by a former Israeli spy who has argued that his outfit is involved in “a new kind of war.”

While Act.IL publicly denies being supported by the Israeli government, the group’s chief executive has admitted in Hebrew to working closely with Israeli ministries, and in English that his staff are mostly former Israeli spies.

His name is Yarden Ben Yosef. Last year, he explained his group’s methods in an article for a journal aimed at Israeli diplomats. He lamented that – in #Gaza that May – “the Palestinian narrative prevailed in world media over the Israeli one.”

Israeli snipers had massacred more than 60 unarmed Palestinian protesters on a single day during the Great March of Return protests, injuring thousands more.

Ben Yosef advocated for “inserting ourselves” into online discussions, because readers nowadays see the comments section under articles published by websites as part of the story.

Using sophisticated “monitoring software,” he wrote, Act.IL closely watched news and social media the week before the opening of the new US embassy in Jerusalem – one of the triggers for the Palestinian protests.

Ben Yosef explained that “controlling the online media discussion became our top priority.”

He claimed victory in these efforts, successfully “bumping the pro-Israeli comments to the top of the list in 85 percent of the cases.”

#hasbara #propagande #Palestine

Two deaths and one big lie
Maureen Clare Murphy Rights and Accountability 10 June 2019
▻https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/two-deaths-and-one-big-lie

The killing of math teacher Yaqoub Abu al-Qiyan during an early 2017 raid on a Palestinian village was in many respects a typical act of violence by Israel’s colonization project. A Palestinian was left dead, others injured and homes were destroyed – starting with those belonging to Abu al-Qiyan’s family – to make way for a Jewish settlement.

There are unique aspects to his case – he was killed in Israel, not in the occupied West Bank, for one. And thanks to the UK-based research group Forensic Architecture, a moment-by-moment breakdown of the events leading up to Abu al-Qiyan’s death and the state cover-up that followed has been made publicly available. (...)

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(...) Israel’s official narrative soon fell apart, but Forensic Architecture “wanted to understand better what had happened in the moments leading to Abu al-Qiyan’s death.”

Mishandling of evidence

The research group has published a new video report ▻https://vimeo.com/337735829

that includes more documentation contradicting Israel’s claims. That documentation includes newly available footage from body and handheld cameras operated by police officers at the scene, a “partial and incomplete” police evidence file, the full recording of the thermal aerial video, and recordings of police radio channels.

The body cam footage recorded by one of the officers indicated that Forensic Architecture’s earlier suspicion that Abu al-Qiyan was killed by a single bullet fired at close range while his car had come to a stop – to “confirm the kill” – was unlikely.

The research group also used reenactment at the scene of Abu al-Qiyan’s killing, as well as synchronization of audio and video documentation, 3D modeling and other methodologies, to reach its conclusions. (...)

►https://seenthis.net/messages/561578
#Palestine_assassinée