Complaint: Incitement on "Indymedia" Website
Summary: The website "Indymedia" published a picture photomontage where one sees the Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, wearing an S.S. uniform and giving a Nazi salute to a flag with a Swastika.
By: Gal Mor - Ynet (Yideot Aharonot)
The website "Indymedia" published a picture photomontage, where the Prime Minister of Israel, Ariel Sharon, is portrayed wearing an S.S. uniform and giving a Nazi salute to a flag with a Swastika, which waves over a background of Jerusalem. In the picture one sees the hand of Sharon dripping blood and from his mouth come the words "Heil Israel!"
Yoni Goldblatt-Lavev, editor of the right wing website "Daot" (Opinions), claims that the picture has been on the front page of the website for several weeks, from the time it was originally published, in the beginning of December.
"Indymedia" gives the ability for any surfer to be a journalist and publish content in a automatic way. It seems that the picture was published by a cartoonist from Brazil and not by anyone active on the website. However, "I have no doubt that the editors of the website were aware of the existence of the picture and despite this, they didn't censor it," maintains Goldblatt-Lavev, "We are talking about the incitement from the radical left, in a shape that is extreme and well outside of good taste."
Goldblatt-Lavev presented the complaint of incitement to the Israeli Police against the Israeli editors of the Independent Media Center "Indymedia" and their work in publishing the photomontage.
The Indymedia website states in reply that "The website gives to any person the ability to publish ideas and opinions. On average, fifty articles are published onto the website a day, which are published by people from all over the world, from Israeli settlers to people from all over the Arab states. Editors of the website do not rewrite or edit any ideas or opinions of any article, and without any relation to their personal opinion, except if the article has a direct call for violence, directly racist statements, commercialist articles (with intent to sell something), or provable falsehoods. The caricature in question, published from Brazil, was never for a second displayed on the front page of the website. It only existed as a link in the free publish newswire on the 5th of December, 2001, and left the newswire a few hours later, to the archives."
The photomontage still exists on the "Indymedia" website at the present time.
The original article:
http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-1787208,FF.html
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Complaint to the Police: Indymedia Israel published picture of Sharon wearing a Nazi uniform
First Published in Hebrew in Nana News (http://www.nana.co.il) on March 24, 2002
By: Idan Kenan
During the weekend, a complaint against Indymedia Israel for incitement was served to the police, due to the publication of a photomontage of the Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, wearing an S.S. jacket, giving a Nazi salute and saying "Heil Israel!" on a background of a flag with a Swastika. The complaint was given by the editor of the right-wing website "Daot" (opinions), Yoni Goldblatt-Lavev. The Ministry of Communication state that spokesperson Ayelet Galili will also present a complaint on the same issue.
Indymedia Israeli is part of the international Indymedia collective, which aims to be an alternative to the establishment media. The website gives to all the ability to publish articles onto the website without advance filtering. According to Bryan Atinsky, an editor of the English section of the website, approximately fifty articles are published a day, from settlers in Gush Etzion, to people in England and throughout the Arab countries. Censoring only occurs for articles with direct and explicit calls for violence, explicitly racist statements, commercial publications (selling something), and provable lies.
According to Goldblatt Lavev, the photomontage was published on the front page of the website for the last three weeks. "The website 'Daot' and a group of activists from the Nationalist Camp on the Internet have been after Indymedia for a long time," said Goldblatt Lavev to Nana news. "We hope that they get the people responsible for this and try the editors of Indymedia in the court of law. Perhaps they will succeed in silencing them (trans: or shutting them up or in quieting them) and get them removed from the internet."
Goldblatt Lavev published on the "Daot" website last week a sign saying "Offer of $10,000 for the head of Jabril Rajoub" head of anti-occupation apparatus in the West Bank. However, when asked stated that there is no way to compare the picture of Sharon with the picture of Rajoub "because he is a terrorist according to the laws of the State of Israel."
The Office Communication in Israel states that the spokesperson of the Minister of Communication, Ayelet Galili, will also present a complaint on the issue. "This extremist group first came to the public's attention when three of its members made an attack against the Minister of Communication, Rubin (Rubi) Rivlin, inside of the Knesset. This organization proves the connection between incitement and actual violence," said the Office of Communication's statement. The attack spoken of was a pie thrown in the face of Minister Rivlin when he exited an economic meeting in July of 2001. According to a local paper in Tel Aviv, the impetus for the action was also a member of Indymedia.
"On the specific case at hand (the caricature of Sharon), we do not want to any statements before we have a meeting tomorrow to discuss the issue," said Atinsky. The Office of the Prime Minister has not given any statements at the time of publication of this article.
Of late, following a complaint of the Organization for the Public Right to Know, said the Government Prosecuting Attorney, Elkayim Rubinstein, opened an investigation of the satirical website "Nonsense" for suspicion of Public Offense. The website made a flash movie, in which Sharon is wearing a Nazi jacket in Zion Square (Jerusalem). Two weeks before the decision, MT'B (the parent company), closed the website.
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Reply by the Indymedia Israel Collective to the accusations of Incitement against Ariel Sharon
(Translated from the Hebrew original)
The Indymedia Israel website is an open forum which provides the capability for any person to publish news, ideas and opinions. The website is part of the International Indymedia collective which all work in much the same format.
On average, approximately fifty articles are published to the website a day from all over the world, from Israeli settlers to people in the Arab states. The editors, without any relation to their private opinions, do not hide, rewrite or edit any idea or opinion, except in the following cases:
1. Direct calls for violence. 2. Directly racist statements. 3. Publications which attempt to directly market goods. 4. Information which can be proven to be false.
The only active editing work done by the editorial group is in the selection of important or interesting articles that were previously published on the site, and to move them to the center Feature Column.
The caricature spoken of was sent from Brazil and was at no time ever placed in the center column of the website. It was only referenced to as a link in the right column (the open publishing forum) on the 5th of December, 2001 and the link moved to the archive after a few hours when the publication of new articles pushed it downward and off the newswire. At any rate, the picture (like all articles published onto the website) is the opinion of the author (Lutuff) and the author alone.
The question must be asked, however, why was this caricature, which was published at the beginning of December 2001 and on the newswire for only a few hours, suddenly remembered? Perhaps the right-wing editor is working in collusion with the Office of the Prime Minister and other Ministers, who are attempting to start a campaign to silence and suppress various media organizations, from Channel 1 Israeli Television, to the "Nonsense" website?
Perhaps there are personal motives behind this decision?
One last question: Does the Office of Communication have in mind to also present an official complaint against Yideot Aharonot, Ma'ariv and all the other media organizations in Israel, which frequently re-publish caricatures from publications in the Arab world, on the basis that these organizations are giving them a platform?
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