Israeli man who impersonated Palestinian woman is linked to Free Gaza debacle and photo hoax

Benjamin Doherty Activism and BDS Beat 10 October 2012

In March 2012 while Israel was bombing Gaza, users on social media misrepresented war photographs as if they portrayed current events. Attention focused on two users believed to be the originators of the false photos: Khulood Badawi and Maissam Nablussi.

A scandal erupted when it was discovered that Khulood Badawi was a United Nations employee, though the photograph was posted to her personal account. For weeks Israeli propaganda organizations and government officials campaigned against Badawi, and used the episode to try to discredit reports about harm caused to Palestinian civilians in Gaza by Israeli attacks, even though an investigation by Ma’an News Agency later found that indeed the girl in the picture, Raja Abu Shaban, aged 2, had died during an Israeli strike in 2006.

Maissam Nablussi however was never mentioned again. This is because compelling evidence indicates that Maissam Nablussi is an Israeli man named Ofer Engel working on a Ph.D. about online social networks at the London School of Economics.

Engel has now resurfaced as a player in the controversy following Greta Berlin’s tweeting of racist material from the Twitter account of Free Gaza movement.

This episode is an example of how social engineering and deception can be used to infiltrate activist communities.

First interactions with “Nablussi”

I first interacted with the Maissam Nablussi persona in April 2012 on Twitter where she used the account @nablussi. She tried to persuade me that online hasbara activist Romeu Monteiro, a Portuguese man whose pro-Israel article in Ynet was being promoted in Israel advocacy circles, was credible and could be persuaded to be anti-Zionist.

This was dubious, so I began to investigate Maissam Nablussi for evidence of a real life existence. I found none.

Furthermore, I found that she had previously used the profile picture of noted blogger Bushra Burney, and her current one is a professional art photograph still image from the film Interrupted Streams by Guy Davidi. When I confronted @nablussi with this information, she claimed she needed to mask her identity to protect her right to enter Palestine and to avoid offending her family.

The Nablussi persona sent these messages to me between 11 April and 12 April 2012:

not at all Benjamin you are right to be suspicous. The avatars are not a picture of myself. I’m a hijabi girl though, studying at harvard

I say things that might put myself in danger with the Israel authorities, that’s why I prefer to use an avatar that looks close enough to me

But I really have to protect myself somehow otherwise I will be in big trouble - not only w my family but also if I want to return 2 elquds

Ofer Engel enters the picture

At the time, the stakes were not very high, so I lost interest in verifying her identity. Nonetheless, she offered someone who could vouch for her:

here are a couple of people who met me in person, such as @engelo and @oBethlehem. I come from Sheikh Jarah but live in Boston

At this point, I followed @engelo – the Twitter account used by Ofer Engel – and he soon sent me a direct message:

Maissam just asked me to tell you - yes, I know her personally, she is a very intelligent young girl

Nablussi later added:

I’m a graduate student, studying collective action on online social networks. But I’ve only started my studies this year

Curiously, as we shall see, Nablussi’s supposed research sounds very similar to Engel’s. The Maissam Nablussi persona stopped updating all social media accounts on 26 July 2012 and vanished. Also on this date, Ofer Engel stopped posting on his Tumblr (see screenshot captured on 7 October 2012).

Engel has been asked numerous times about what happened to Nablussi and has failed to provide any answers.

The other person who she named was @oBethlehem a Twitter account identified with a Walid Jabari in Bethlehem. This account disappeared a few hours prior to publication. Preliminary efforts to verify the identity of Walid Jabari with multiple sources in Bethlehem produced no leads.

Greta Berlin controversy

Over five months later on 30 September 2012, Greta Berlin of Free Gaza movement posted a video featuring Eustace Mullins, known for virulent anti-Semitic conspiracy, to the organization’s Twitter account.

Her explanation for the offensive tweet is that she didn’t know that the @freegazaorg Twitter account was linked to her Facebook page and that she meant to share the anti-Semitic content with a private group that was having a discussion about racism and propaganda.

Berlin has been unwilling to identify the private group or its members, but 16 people claiming to be members of this private group have come forward to defend Greta Berlin’s intentions. Their statement has been published on +972 magazine.

When I first saw the list of signatories to the group statement, I recognized only three names: Mazen Qumsiyeh, Mary Hughes Thompson and Ofer Engel.

The fact that Ofer Engel’s name is among the signatories led me to inquire about the authenticity of everyone on the list. Engel, according to Ali Abunimah, is also the person who emailed a copy of the same statement to The Electronic Intifada asking that it be published.

I found some of the other names listed as donors on the recently launched website Peace Architects:

  • Adam Rawat
  • Fadwa Othman
  • Yani Haigh

The name “Manuela Breitmayer-Affaneh” is also listed as a donor on that site, and online databases show this to be an associate or alias for Mona Affaneh who signed the statement.

I was able to verify Robby Martin with a Palestine solidarity activist in Ireland. Mike Burch is the name of an American poet.

This leaves the following people as unverified:

  • Ian Raven. Leicester, UK
  • Kyle O’Laughlin, Chicago, Illinois, USA
  • Moe Tamim, Montreal, Canada
  • Nadia Mansour, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • Rim Selmi, Tunis, Tunisia
  • Sam Siddiqui, Mumbai, India
  • Walid Jabari, Bethlehem, Palestine

Roles in Facebook groups

I have reviewed weeks of content posted to a private Facebook group called “Our Land” that Greta Berlin takes an active role in administering. It is not the group Berlin claims to have tried to post the Eustace Mullins video to but is a group where it was posted by someone else on 28 September 2012, as noted by Ali Abunimah.

All of the names on the statement by alleged members of the secret Facebook group are also members of the group I reviewed. That group has over 1000 members. Greta Berlin, Fadwa Othman, Mike Burch, Ian Raven, Rim Selmi, Sam Siddiqui, Nadia Mansour and Moe Tamim are among the group’s 13 administrators and its very few active members.

Many names have been particularly troublesome to find any information about. Most of these personas appear to only have an existence on Facebook.

Activity in the group is currently being scrubbed. One particularly active user, Sam Siddiqui, has deleted his or her account and re-joined Facebook, which effectively purges all evidence of his or her participation in groups, although much of this evidence has been archived with screenshots.

What are these groups?

Yani Haigh has published a diagram that shows a relationship among different groups on Facebook. Some of them appear to be operated as a project of Peace Architects.

Rich Siegel, Greta Berlin, Yani Haigh, Esther Riley and others are listed as participants or administrators in this project. It is unclear who is behind this project, what purpose it serves, whether any of the people named are aware of their inclusion in this “project” or are being manipulated, and for what reason the Facebook groups appear in these diagrams.

If the web site http://bcisiveonline.com where the embedded diagrams are hosted is offline, the diagram above may not appear. I have preserved the data files which are in an unknown format on GitHub.

Attempts to contact Yani Haigh received no response.

Who is Ofer Engel?

Ofer Engel is a graduate student at the London School of Economics. His subject area is online social networks — similar to what the Nablussi persona told me she studied at Harvard. His thesis title is “The micro-foundations of email communication networks” and his work is supervised by Carsten Sørensen and Peter Abell.

According to a 2010 Ph.D. thesis poster, Engel is interested in understanding “how … events explain the structure of ties.” In mathematical sociology, ties “are defined as information-carrying connections between people.”

LSE Ph.D. thesis poster published May 2010. Detail.

A 2009 paper Engel wrote is titled “Clusters, recipients and reciprocity: Extracting more value from email communication networks” which appears to be about how scientists can use information about how individuals send and receive email to determine and predict their real life relationships and associations with groups and networks.

Another paper, “Four factors influencing effectiveness in email communication networks” prepared for a 2010 workshop in Whistler, British Columbia indicates that Ofer Engel was “visiting at Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences (unofficial status).”

I spoke to a Palestine solidarity activist who met Engel in person in 2007. At the time, Engel claimed he was from Germany. The activist has a vivid recollection of Engel being nervous during their conversation.

Five years later, in an effort to establish bona fides in the Palestine activist community, Engel claimed to be an Israeli Jew active with Anarchists Against The Wall and Boycott From Within. Extensive inquiries with long-term members of these organizations indicate that Engel had at best a fleeting and marginal association with them and was largely unknown to well-informed activists in those circles.

What is the relationship between Free Gaza movement and Ofer Engel?

In the summer of this year, members of a “secret” Facebook group of which Greta Berlin is a member became suspicious of Ofer Engel who had been nominated to join the group by another member claiming to be a Palestinian living in Bethlehem.

Members of Berlin’s group were already suspicious that the man in Bethlehem was a fake persona. In order to allay their doubts, members of the group reached out to Palestine solidarity activists to verify Engel’s story. An activist who was contacted in this way by a member of Berlin’s group was unable to vouch for Engel. Despite this, Engel was allowed to join the group anyway.

“Walid Jabari” is a Palestinian who allegedly lives in Bethlehem who signed the statement in defense of Greta Berlin from the private Facebook group. He is also the only person named by the Maissam Nablussi persona who could vouch for her existence besides Ofer Engel.

The Free Gaza Twitter debacle unfolds

After Greta Berlin posted the Eustace Mullins video, she claimed that her personal Facebook account had been connected to the @freegazaorg Twitter account without her knowledge.

The first tweet to appear on @freegazaorg through Facebook was posted on 11 August 2012, very soon after Ofer Engel requested access to the small, secret group on Facebook.

On 8 October 2012, Ofer Engel provided a photograph to me depicting Greta Berlin, Ofer Engel and a man identified as Adam Rawat. The identity of the photographer is unknown.

From left to right, a person identified as Adam Rawat, Free Gaza Movement co-founder Greta Berlin and LSE Ph.D. student Ofer Engel.

Ofer Engel responds

On 9 October 2012, after refusing several requests over several days for an interview in person with The Electronic Intifada or by Skype, I asked Ofer Engel by email the following specific questions:

Did you operate the Maissam Nablussi accounts on Twitter and Facebook in March and April 2012?

Do you operate any other Facebook or Twitter profiles that do not carry the name Ofer Engel?

Engel’s entire answer consisted of four words:

No I do not.

His answer in the present tense evaded the question of whether he operated the Maissam Nablussi account in the past.

His failure to deny that he operated the Maissam Nablussi account must be seen in the light of his earlier failure to respond to inquiries about her present whereabouts and the fact that the Nablussi persona had provided Ofer Engel as her only verifiable reference, as well as the other coincidences in their stories.

Meanwhile, Ofer Engel continues to edit the Greta Berlin article and its discussion page on Wikipedia.

What happened?

The evidence leads me to the conclusion that Walid Jabari and Maissam Nablussi are sockpuppets operated by Ofer Engel. I believe he used the Walid Jabari persona to build trust among Free Gaza movement leaders and gain access to the group as Ofer Engel.

There are unanswered questions about what role certain Facebook groups play in a larger scheme that may be intended to manipulate, produce or disrupt activist networks, and who operates this scheme.

Ultimately, Greta Berlin is responsible for her words and deeds. But the security practices of certain Free Gaza movement leaders allowed a dishonest person with no verifiable reputation and unclear motives to gain access to what they believed to be a secure group.

Ofer Engel has lied to Palestine solidarity activists. He impersonates Palestinian men and women online. And he has played a very strange and ongoing role in the scandal surrounding Free Gaza movement and Greta Berlin.

With thanks to the numerous people who assisted me with this investigation.

Update: More evidence corroborates that Israeli Ofer Engel faked Palestinian activists online, 16 October 2012

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Comments

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Yani replied on

You couldn't have tried very damn hard to contact me. I've never seen anything said in these groups that isn't typical of what is said on Facebook. Your story is totally news to me. The only thing particularly special about these people is that they champion human rights for all people not just Palestinians. They are particularly vocal on issues of racism, homophobia and disarmament. As Facebook friends go I'm very proud to stand with them. As for Facebook accounts being deleted, that isn't us doing the deleting, it's coming from a group of people who are members of a secret Israeli group "Israel Unlimited" that contains members of the EDL and Wilders inc.

These are the web projects I'm doing...
http://www.peacearchitects.org/
http://www.thebestplans.org/
http://pinkanonymous.org/

Pinkanonymous being the odd man out which is about the restoration of health funding in Queensland, Australia for health promotion.

There is also "Amy Jailhouse" who is a Tunisian and organizing a 96 day walking tour of Tunisia. She is determined to prove Muslim women are progressive and that capitalism is a failure.

https://www.facebook.com/event...

Indeed the only organization we belong to as a collective is Facebook. I'm the 'director' of a few web projects. You get that when you have an Honours Degree in Media and Communications.

Thank you so much for the publicity. I would have preferred in sooner, more targeted, useful and correct. What I'd like is to get more people to make donations to helping Saeed get to Europe on his speaking tour. Something he does as Saeed and not as a member of any organization. A young man I'm happy to assist because he is heroic. That's what it takes to get my interest and time investment in these projects, a gut feeling that the people involved are heroic.

I'd personally appreciate assistance to cash up Saeed for his trip to Europe so he isn't representing Palestine as a beggar.

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Adam replied on

a "vile agent"?!?!?!- how ridiculous!!! based on what evidence? on very weak allegations?? This is called slander full stop. Electronic Intifada should be sued.

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Jinjirrie replied on

Why is bigotry toxic to any cause for justice and rights for oppressed people, Yanni? Please explain in depth.

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Kyle replied on

I exist, and like Yani, I must thank you all for thinking so highly of those of us who support and vouch for our dear friend Greta. I have never had the opportunity to watch a bona fide witch hunt, so again, I must thank you for this opportunity.

The fact of the matter is that your "research" can't have been too intense if you cannot find any confirmation on the majority of us even existing. The fact that you're wasting your time and energy "investigating" us is quite telling -- don't you have anything better to be doing than harassing a beloved woman and her friends?

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A real Palestinian replied on

I am incredibly disappointed and disgusted by the reactions I am seeing from Greta's friends in and outside of the FGM movement and by the reaction of Greta herself.

As a Palestinian, I do appreciate solidarity from foreigners but not at the expense of the legitimacy of my cause.

We, as Palestinians are scrutinized very closely--that is the norm for us. The Greta Berlin fan club expects this to not be the case for her. We are expected to keep quiet about all dubious personalities that attach themselves to our cause simply because they are foreigners that had the decency to advocate on our behalf? Are you freaking kidding me?

At the very least if these folks are having orientalist attitudes about what our positions should be (unyielding solidarity with Greta and her friends of dubious character. no thanks) then at the very least these characters should care about the other western solidarity activists who are currently on their way to Gaza who as if Israel needed another pretext to attack can now claim they are protecting themselves from Western Nazis.

What complete crap this whole debacle has turned into and it's unfortunate that the personalities involved in this spectacle would prefer to focus on Ali Abunimah and Ben Doherty for having the scruples to investigate this matter and set the record state so that real Palestinian solidarity is not harmed. Because as the record shows: No actual real Palestinians had anything to do with any of this. Palestinians are subject to enough discrimination and hardship we do not need or welcome non-Palestinians screwing things up for us.

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eGuard replied on

April 24, "Joelle Abi-Rached and Ofer Engel" published a piece on Mondoweiss. One could ask Mondoweiss staff or Joelle Abi-Rached (an LSE connection?) about Ofer Engels credits.

Curiously, there is a comment added by "engelo" (@engelo himself, though not disclosed), and the linked article in The Harvard Crimson has a rare comment by "Walid Jabari" (@oBethlehem).

http://mondoweiss.net/2012/04/...

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Ryan replied on

where to start?

1- Ofer Engel isnt an Israeli agent, he is some random self hating jew if indeed he is even really a jew, the fact that he hangs out with greasy greta and her crew pretty much says it all.

2- Walid Jabari posts quite frequently but has been caught giving conflicting stories, one was that he was gay, another was that he is active in the "resistance". we all assumed he was gretas nom de plume.

3- Yani Haigh is an idiot, he banned any pro Israel voices from "our land" he admins a forum called " anything but israel" which is supposed to be a forum where no middle east/ Israel stuff is discussed, but he then broke his own rule by shilling gretas book. lmao he also kicked out any jews who didnt give money to his causes in a case of blatant black mail (yes we have screen shots)

4- all of the people supposedly in gretas secret group are extremely anti Israeli, it is funny that Sam Siddiqui deletes her accounts so that people cant see all the antisemitic crap she posts. Kyle posts drivel but is uneducated so its easy to refute his idiocy.

5-feel free to check out Israel Unlimited, despite the acusations of Yani, its a pretty good forum with a mix of all political spectrums and unlike Gretas forum for antisemites, we dont allow racism and bigotry and its cracked down on hard. we are careful who we allow in but if you message myself or Cliff Pinto we can let you in with full access as we have nothing to hide.

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Jinjirrie replied on

Yani, I had hoped that you would take the opportunity I gave to explain how the bigotry you display prolifically is counterproductive to the cause you promote shamelessly, in fact making you a liability to the very people you claim to be assisting. .

How can you live with yourself?

Would you now like to explain your real strategy in depth, because with your vile, pervasive bigotry, the normalising components of your operation and your stated aims, there's extreme incongruence.

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Yani replied on

@akayanni i sent the email through your google plus page. you run a lot of anonymous web sites, and i don’t do facebook.
Benjamin Doherty @bangpound

And there is the ad hominem... "you run a lot of anonymous web sites"

Every site allows a log in and all have associated Facebook connections. G+ should have redirect to a different email. In any case what sort of person goes to so much trouble to write a story including using material that he never sort permission to use and gets everything wrong then behaves like a smartass? And spends all of 24 hours to make the required connection before publication.

Talk about self important... "The server where the embedded diagram is hosted appears to be overwhelmed with traffic due to this post, so the diagram below may not appear." ROFL You wish Ben. www.bcisiveonline.com is off line period for an unknown reason but I'd be 110% sure it isn't the traffic you generated. That does fit perfectly with all the rest of your exaggerated assumptions.

Let me be clear, Peace Architects is a highly active group of 1563 individuals mostly with PhDs or Honours, 30% of which are Jewish, who support thousands of individuals and projects to bankrupt Israel. New members welcome, must be Facebook users, Marxist Feminist with a deep understanding of the work of Michel Foucault preferred. We have a working design of a Hill Hoist that has been converted to a uranium enrichment plant which is an Open Source project. We also assist straight men to become lesbians as a sideline.

Here is an image of our uranium enrichment machine before conversion.
http://diybb.files.wordpress.c...

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Élise Hendrick replied on

I, too, wish that Yani might show a bit of introspection about the racist material he consistently posts and encourages in his groups. One of his recurrent "Marxist Feminist" ideas is that Jews are irredeemable unless they convert to Christianity. Perhaps he could tell us a little bit about that.

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emma rosenthal replied on

i really wish this had unfolded differently. i have worked with greta over the years and find the entire story difficult and regretful. the tolerance for white supremacy, from counterpunch, to if americans knew, and to neo-liberals who coach all their arguments in terms of amerikkkka first and u.s. interests, has left us, as a movement open to attack for a long time. it was easy to dismiss me and other activists who raised these issues, as crypto zionists, or more recently, as anti-zionist zionists. but the victims of racism are often not the direct targets of racism. in this case, anti-jewish racism has been a vehicle for dismissing the rights of palestinians and dirtying their entire struggle. racism in any form is an attack on us all. it is an essential tool of class warfare. we need to hold our leaders accountable, for sure, but we need to make sure that we are also accountable for/to the entire movement. the material that was posted to the free gaza site is unfortunately very common on fb walls and threads. it really shouldn't matter that people restrict this crap to their own walls. unless it is posted with a clear disclaimer, then the impression is that it is an endorsement of the materials.

if the post was indeed an accident, and intended to denounce this type of material, nothing explains the overt racism of yani who posted that jews suck and need to convert via baptism to christianity, on greta's wall, and despite her presence on that thread (to admonish me), there was no mention or denunciation of yani's repeated racist statements.

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emma rosenthal replied on

anti-jewish racism is the cornerstone of ideological white supremacists (nazi, neo-nazi, kkk, christian identity, etc), asserting that the real enemy of all humanity is a jewish conspiracy of global dominance. to white supremacists, palestine is the front line of this battle against "jewish global domination." they speak in terms of palestine solidarity, not palestinian solidarity. like the zionists, they are interested in the land. the people are superfluous. but this racism is predicated on a deeper racism, not that that should matter. as long as people continue to present argument in terms of amerikan interests, and continue to claim that there is something unique to u.s. support of israel, and that this support is ruining the "good name" of the u.s., we are negating all the victims of u.s. hegemony, conquest, expansion and empire. that's a pretty broad racist brush.

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Ofer Engel replied on

Last I checked Judaism is not a race but nice try. Maybe we'll pull the wool over our eyes and pretend that everyone who doesn't agree with you hates jews.

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Élise Hendrick replied on

Often, we hear that white supremacists must be tolerated in the Palestinian solidarity movement in a spirit of inclusiveness, but inclusiveness is not always a virtue, and some divisions are essential in order to maintain the effectiveness and integrity of a movement (a movement that is, at bottom, a movement against institutionalised racism, for example, would be wise to be divisive when it means excluding racists).

Often, when we include white supremacists in the movement, we are letting in forces that even the most broadly "inclusive" amongst us would never dream of allowing in.

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Benjamin Doherty replied on

We hear that white supremacists must be tolerated in the Palestinian solidarity movement in a spirit of inclusiveness

In 13 years, I have never heard this in North America. I’ve been close to student, community, coalition, interfaith, direct action, you name it. I’ve never heard that we must tolerate white supremacists at all.

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Élise Hendrick replied on

The people who call for a policy of tolerance towards white supremacism in the movement generally don't acknowledge - and often do not realise - that that is what they are calling for, because white supremacism these days rarely announces itself as such. Instead, it is coded in terms of "Middle America", "American core values", "American interests", or a concern with "foreign lobbies". But when you sit down and actually look at the ideology of those propagating these ideas, you quickly find the white supremacism staring you in the face.

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Rob replied on

"Instead, it is coded in terms of 'Middle America', 'American core values', 'American interests', or a concern with 'foreign lobbies' "
- This may be a conversation worth having, and indeed one does see such people gravitating around the Palestine solidarity movement - sometimes in comment sections such as Mondoweiss, JSF and elsewhere. It's true that such racism is often coded and rather subtle, as some white supremacists have learned to disguise their bigotry in such terms, and can latch onto the movement as a way of bashing Jews - a sort of "enemy of my enemy" logic. This is a broader movement, though, using the issue as just one means with which to spew their poison. If that is your real name, I seem to recall you writing a blog post on the Ron Paul affiliated white supremacist news letters a while back, no?

I had a very brief convo with Mr. Doherty on Twitter today, in which be rightfully said that places like Veterans Today and other conspiracy mongers aren't part of the solidarity movement, and just because some people claim to speak in the name of Palestinians, we shouldn't necessarily take their word for it.

This does open up an opportunity for guilt-by-association accusations by Zionists and other hardliners who will jump at every occasion to denigrate, but there will always be some ideologically minded people who latch onto movements and symbols for ulterior motives (look at BNP in England, for example, waving Israeli flags, who obviously couldn't care less about Israelis). I don't think it's Palestinians', or others', responsibility to be constantly be answering for these people, especially as anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bigotry (in the US, anyway) generally dwarfs this kind of hate-mongering, especially since 9/11.

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emma rosenthal replied on

well, they don't come right out and call it white supremacy, but that's what it is, that's its theoretical framework and origin. it's rooted in the idea that the jews are a universal threat, and that jews as jews are not to be trusted, are uniquely tribal and problematic. it ignores or glorifies the u.s. and western history and trajectory and considers palestine to be the front line in the battle against the global jewish conspiracy. it's what this whole mess is all about.

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Ali Abunimah replied on

In my experience it usually white supremacists and other bigots who tell us we must tolerate them, and accuse us of “witchhunts” and “gatekeeping” if we don’t.

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Élise Hendrick replied on

Yes, indeed. It is a classic case of projection. The white supremacists gatekeep the movement by attacking anyone who brings up white supremacism, and then accuse those of us who attempt to do so of being "gatekeepers".

And they really show their true colours, one might add, when they are forced to choose between respecting the wishes of respected Palestinian activists and intellectuals (in what is supposedly a Palestinian solidarity movement) and promoting their white supremacism. The "fatwa" comment, which Greta Berlin has approvingly repeated multiple times now, demonstrates that these people's differences with the likes of Geert Wilders and Pam Geller are nowhere near as significant as the common ground between them.

This is not in any way to diminish the work of the Free Gaza Movement, I hasten to add. I have always defended their efforts to raise awareness of - and, hopefully, to end - the suffering inflicted on the Palestinians in Gaza against hasbaroid smears, and I stand by every word I have written on that subject. But I am amazed that, with all the effort that was put into FABRICATING smears against the FGM, this is the first time anyone has called attention to Greta Berlin's endorsement of white supremacist ideology. It could have happened at any time in the past several years, and that is entirely down to all our failure to "grant no quarter".

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A real Palestinian replied on

"Often, we hear that white supremacists must be tolerated in the Palestinian solidarity movement in a spirit of inclusivenes..."

Absolutely incorrect. I don't know which circles you are in but in mine there is a vigilance that borders on paranoid about making sure that no racist voices discredit our cause.

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Élise Hendrick replied on

It is very heartening to hear this, as I am constantly having to deal not only with white supremacists who try to divert Palestinian solidarity work to their obsession with "foreign lobbies" and "Jewish power", but with people who tell me that we need to accept these voices because they somehow appeal to "Middle America" or somesuch.

Perhaps you can share your group's protocol with us so that we can see how white supremacism can be successfully combated.

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emma rosenthal replied on

then perhaps you and your group could provide their protocol, because this entire discussion and the mess facing the free gaza movement, the solidarity movement in general, and the events leading up to the landmark statement re the racism of gilad atzmon, "grant no quarter" are all about the ubiquitous pressure of white supremacy.

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Suleiman replied on

Ironic that this is your comment policy: "We will not accept personal
attacks, racism or bigotry against any group, unsubtantiated claims,
obscenity, profanity, commercial promotion, incoherence,
impersonation, or posting multiple times in order to evade the
character limit." when in fact this is what you just did in this very
flimsy and unsubstantiated post based on empty evidence and distorted
logic.

Ofer Engel - and this applies to anyone else - is by law innocent
until proven otherwise.

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Ryan replied on

http://www.facebook.com/photo....

perhaps Yani would like to explain these quotes, I am wondering where "jokes" like " jewoosh what happens after a jew gets an douche" really Yanni with your supposed education you should know when to use an and when to use a.
how about this gem "jewcy--that palestinian looks jewcy".

you literally cannot make this stuff up.

I was pro palestinian insofar as I genuinely believe they need better advocates and leadership, that they have genuine grievances and deserve to have their issues looked into and solved but after dealing with these idiots for almost a year I have noticed myself becoming far more to the right.

If I took the time I could find stuff like this on every single person.

Ian Raven, right now as we speak is on the co-op forum talking about how all Israelis are valid targets, and then people wonder why support for their cause is dwindling?

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jill replied on

Thanks for exposing some of Yani's finer comments about Jews. I was part of a forum with him. Initially, we bridged some sort of mutual respect, until I raised a red flag on Greta, her book, and her cause- in very normal language, asking to check her motivation, as I felt it wasn't pure. (I believe you can be pro-Palestinian without being "anti-Israel.") I recognized Greta as being an anti-Semite, and said so. I went from ok person to a "C-NT" in seconds flat- that's the rabid hate Yani lives with just below the surface...this was all bound to emerge, sooner or later, and for that, I am glad. These are not the peacemakers. This is not who I would want in my corner.

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sara maimon replied on

I am pretty sure Walid is not Greta, and that he is male, and that his political opinions expressed are his own. I'm just as sure that Walid Jabari is not his real name, as well as much and maybe all of his personal information. he is probably not in Bethlehem. He may or may not be a Palestinian.
Walid expresses himself very differently from Greta, and in my personal on line communication (albeit brief) he comes accross as a heterosexual male (despite that gay claim which is probably a red herring).
His posts on other forums (I don't participate in our land) don't leak much of a personality so it is definitely possible that he is an invented persona. But there are so many invented personas on line that I don't think it is necesary or feasible to trace them all to one perosn.

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sara maimon replied on

If in fact Walid Jabari is Ofer Engel, this means that Ofer is in fact highly anti Israel and not a zionist infiltrator, because Walid's political opinions are realistic, consistent, and not caricatured or exxaggerated or made to look ridiculous.

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Jason replied on

Here's the screenshot to prove what I'm saying
http://postimage.org/image/o0t...

Yani Haigh Dome of the block — A bald Arab that won't move for Jews
15 hours ago • Like 3

Yani Haigh Jewoosh — What happens after a Jew gets an douche
15 hours ago • Like 1

Yani Haigh kosher delhi — Pinto
15 hours ago • Like • 4

Yani Haigh Kosher kikes — Coy that care
15 hours ago • Like 1

Yani Haigh Sabbag — Can't leave home without a wall to protect you
15 hours ago • Like

Yani Haigh Jazi — Jew Nazi
15 hours ago • Like 2

Yani Haigh Zoinbie —Jewish Zombie using hasbara manual
15 hours ago • Like

James Linden Rose Hazbot®
15 hours ago • Like 1

James Linden Rose Hazbot® (noun) a zoinbie. Jewish zombie using official Israeli hasbara manual.
15 hours ago • Like

Yani Haigh Jewite — What's being done in the West Bank
15 hours ago - Like

Yani Haigh Jewcy — That Palestinian looks jewcy'
15 hours ago - Like 1

Yani Haigh Kosherinejad — Next leader of Iran
15 hours ago - Like 2

Yani Haigh Zexual — Only does it with Zionists
15 hours ago • Like 1

James Linden Rose Azexual...
15 hours ago • Like

Yani Haigh Mowhammered — Jew after watching the goy gardener work really hard
15 hours ago - Like

Yani Haigh Buyzexual — Fat Zionist gets laid
15 hours ago • Like

Yani Haigh Humhozexual — Zionist that is a really poor root
15 hours ago • Like

Yani Haigh Hozaner — Zionist spelling
14 hours ago - Like

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sara maimon replied on

there's something ridiculous about this article and that is- what difference does it make what ofer engel's motivations are in joining the group? Does it change the fact whether Greta Berlin is anti semite or not, or her friends? Makes no difference at all. Just an attempt at distraction.

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Yael Kahn replied on

Some, such as Sara Maimon, might not be bothered with Israel intentionally spreading anti-Semitism via its agents. Surely if Ofer Engel was spreading anti-Semitic material and was doing that as an Israeli agent then that is significant.

Israel intentionally spreading anti-Semitism via its agents isn't new. Israel is also relying on support from anti-Semites. For example, Netanyahu welcomed Hagee in person on 18 March 2012 - see jpost article:
"Netanyahu lauds Evangelical group for support"

If you are unfamiliar with anti Semitic John Hagee - see huffingtonpost article:
"McCain Backer Hagee Said Hitler Was Fulfilling God's Will"

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Rob replied on

Strongly disagree.
One essential component of Palestinian solidarity, and just a general ethical principle, is a rejection of all forms of racism. Some have even gone so far as to say the Zionism is a particular form of "white supremacy" - and one can make a case for that, situating Zionism in a broader context of European colonialism. Such things as the ties with South Africa during apartheid and the declarations of Zionist leaders, among others, support this interpretation:
Moshé Dayan: "...you shall continue to live like dogs, and whoever wishes may leave"
Ben Gurion: "whoever approaches the Zionist problem from a moral aspect is not a Zionist"
Chaim Weizmann: “The English told us that [there are] some hundred of thousands [of] blacks ['kushim'] there, and this has no importance."
etc.
How can one be against this form of racism when it clearly was tolerated in the goal of establishing the state of Israel at its founding, and simultaneously support antisemitism if it is tolerated when it contributes to the goal of establishing equal rights in Palestine? This is inconsistent.

Most importantly, such attitudes are detrimental to this kind of struggle, as they undermine peoples' efforts by discrediting people associated with the movement, who are taken less seriously as a result, and will make gaining public support more difficult. It's conceivable (though I've seen no proof of it) that there are Zionists deliberately planting such views into the movement in order to do just that, as a form of sabotage. This should be rejected.

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Ryan replied on

is it bad that I am stil laughing at Yanis attempt to smear me by posting a picture that I took on holidays?

a few things.
1- I am from the far north, feel free to Google Paddle Prairie Metis settlement, we often carry firearms for self defence there. if you read the comments you can see they are humorous and in no way serious. the picture is of firearms in my suitcase when I was at home in Paddle for a short holiday not in the city where I currently live.

2-I am not jewish, and have never claimed to be jewish, in Fact Yani knows very well that I am Roman catholic but attend a maronite church when I attend at all.

3-I have never claimed to be a peace activist, as a matter of fact I have been very clear that I support Israel in the majority, but that I also think that the palestinians have some valid concerns and points.

4- Yani tends to make up a lot of things, his grasp of facts is tenuous at best and fallacious at worst. I challenge him to find one case of someone posting anything racist or islamophobic on israel unlimited or even one case of someone posting something indecentr and not being reprimanded publically or banned.

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Ryan replied on

a friend of mine noticed Yani trying to take one comment out of context off of that Photo, so I am posting the conversation here I noticed Yani made sure it was too small for anyone to read them. this is clearly the conversation of a random gun nut .

Mike **** guns check. bball shorts and flannel shirt check. cologne check. ITS GONNA BE A RYAN NIGHT TONIGHT! hahaha what is it that you do in your free time?
July 12 at 3:48pm ·
Ryan Mervin hahahaha, you missed the graphite knee brace and black denim. This was on a trip up north to Mervs house, I may have spent a lot of ammunition that week.
July 12 at 3:51pm ·
Sari ****** This pic looks like a party waiting to happen lol
July 12 at 3:53pm
Mike ****** BLACK DEMIN. it is complete.
July 12 at 3:53pm ·
Ryan Mervin you should the gun im buying next month, sig 226 in .40 cal matte black with the pachmyr grips and irridium sights, totally tricked out. I got a boner just holding it.
July 12 at 3:56pm ·
Mike ******* hahahah FUN STUFF. i got one of them in 9. theyre solid.
July 12 at 3:56pm ·
Ryan Mervin when given the choice the sig was all I carried for a short gun, I dont like the feel of the glock and I am ok with 9mm but I like the .40 or the 10mm even better for stopping power combined with accuracy. I might buy a 9 because its 300 cheaper, but I only need the one pistol right now lol
July 12 at 3:58pm ·
Ryan Mervin I do like the old wheel guns though, I was pretty accurate with that .357, Merv kicks my ass with long guns but I own with a pistol
July 12 at 3:58pm ·
Mike ******nah get the .40 you can get conversion barrels (i suggest KKM) that can convert your 40 sig into a nine. so yea. but wheelies are awesome.
July 12 at 3:59pm ·
Ryan Mervin I might get the 9 just to use for cheaper targeting, the best thing about the .357 is I can use 38 special to target shoot
July 12 at 4:01pm ·

where I am from guns are a part of life. we carry them for protection from bears.

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Benjamin Doherty replied on

In Yani’s blog post, he makes a lot of noise and even apparently threatens contributors to this site with sexual violence.

Who Yani is and what he thinks is not interesting.

Commenters are urged to focus on the content of the post and other thoughtful comments here rather than digging up more trash about him.

The threshold for approving any more comments about Yani is very high.

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EZC replied on

It is a bit sad that you call this "compelling evidence". You should at least write "allegedly", or say that there are suspicions, and then clarify what they are (What, that he is Anti-Semetic? That he spreads fake anti Semitism? I doubt it)... Even if people write in more than one virtual identity, that doesn't make them guilty of anything, and I know some people who do that for political reasons. This is natural in the day and age of online anonymity. Moreover, the best way to "investigate" it is via IP addresses, following their IPs from websites that they publish in. Unfortunately your current text is very problematic, and I can imagine myself in such situation trying desperately to prove how the things posted are not true. In my view, the fact that Engel didn't reply to your question elaborately in the way that you wanted. does not verify your story. Give him a call, meet him or something. There are many other possible reasons. He could simply be busy. I am sorry to say that at this point, the way you present things here, this is simply slander of someone, who could well be very innocent.

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Irrelevant replied on

I found his Facebook profile. I suggest you look for it and judge for yourselves. https://www.facebook.com/engelo

Could he be a normative (Israeli) person, that has some loose interest in Palestine activism. Do we have any stronger evidence to prove this than that presented in this post?

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Chelli replied on

I feel a little bit out of place in this discussion perhaps because I feel like the discussion itself is somewhat irrelevant - though also central.
(I have not seen the above video and have no interest in ever doing so.)

Why is the debate about what the oppressor gets called or doesn't get called? We in the United States and Israel have the most virulent, hateful anti-Muslim, anti-Arab trash hurled at us every day just in living in these times. And on the other side of that is this fear to "step out of line" and say something that *will be perceived* as "Awful." (And we have had anti-Muslim trash hurled at us every day for more that 11 years now.)

Why is the debate about what the oppressed does or does not call their oppressors?
Who defines that debate?
Where's the analysis of this path? Journalists Kawther Salam and Khalid Amayreh don't get that much exposure to the western audiences (through even pro-Palestinian channels) perhaps because they are not "polite enough" to their oppressors.
People have the right to be angry and to express themselves without being pushed out or censored. (Especially certainly Palestinians.) There are many levels involved in this so-called "debate" about how to express oneself and how to express ones situation, and how to "behave" and be "civilized", but the point is to stop Israel's oppression on Palestine, and like many people have said: there are many paths that all lead to the same place, and all go in the same direction.
We have to be careful about how things get defined, and analyze why things are getting defined in certain ways.
As "a real Palestinian" said above: the context keeps getting muddled and the center is avoided for the peripheral.

Benjamin Doherty

Benjamin Doherty is a web developer.