Non-violent protests are essential to any democracy. A democracy that bans them is by definition not a democracy. But this has happened in many democratic countries around the world who have supported Israel's ban on the Freedom Flotilla 2 to Gaza and the Flytilla to the West Bank.
I would like give an outline of what happened to Flotilla2 and the Flytilla, as many people in the world seem unaware of these non-violent protest actions and how they were stopped. The lack of awareness seems to be because these protests were hardly reported in many countries.
I am not a journalist and before this year's Flotilla was about to set sail had no more interest in the situation in Gaza and the West Bank than any other person with a heart. I cared, but not enough to get involved in protests.
As I found little news about Flotilla 2 in the UK, I started using Twitter (for the first time ever) and found out about the surprising ways being used to stop the Flotilla sailing from Greece. At first, I couldn't understand why the BBC weren't reporting on this. As the week went on, it became obvious that the influence of elements within the Israeli government extended far beyond Israel's borders. That influence led to detaining ships and passengers in Greece, banning passengers from Europe from travelling to the West Bank (before they even set off, in many cases), and my guess is the same influence was behind the under reporting of this news in many countries around the world.
So I've started this Blog to write whatever I can find out about how this lamentable state of affairs has come about. From the tweets I've read, my guess is that the place to start looking is at Israel's 'Hasbara'. This translates as 'explanation'. Wikipedia describes it as 'Public Diplomacy'. I think it is a probably quite special type of propaganda
I would like give an outline of what happened to Flotilla2 and the Flytilla, as many people in the world seem unaware of these non-violent protest actions and how they were stopped. The lack of awareness seems to be because these protests were hardly reported in many countries.
I am not a journalist and before this year's Flotilla was about to set sail had no more interest in the situation in Gaza and the West Bank than any other person with a heart. I cared, but not enough to get involved in protests.
As I found little news about Flotilla 2 in the UK, I started using Twitter (for the first time ever) and found out about the surprising ways being used to stop the Flotilla sailing from Greece. At first, I couldn't understand why the BBC weren't reporting on this. As the week went on, it became obvious that the influence of elements within the Israeli government extended far beyond Israel's borders. That influence led to detaining ships and passengers in Greece, banning passengers from Europe from travelling to the West Bank (before they even set off, in many cases), and my guess is the same influence was behind the under reporting of this news in many countries around the world.
So I've started this Blog to write whatever I can find out about how this lamentable state of affairs has come about. From the tweets I've read, my guess is that the place to start looking is at Israel's 'Hasbara'. This translates as 'explanation'. Wikipedia describes it as 'Public Diplomacy'. I think it is a probably quite special type of propaganda
