Public Intelligence

UPDATE: The Israel Defense Force has now released an “unedited” version of the recording which they say the following “edited” tape is taken from.  This is despite the fact that the description of the video that the IDF supplied on both YouTube and the IDF Spokesman’s blog makes no mention of the tape being edited.  Moreover, the authenticity of the newly released “unedited” version is highly questionable, as it is accompanied by the revelation that the IDF secretly edited the audio of the previous version “to cut out periods of silence over the radio as well as incomprehensible comments so as to make it easier for people to listen to the exchange”.

In addition to their strange editing practices, the IDF was forced to admit that they mistakenly attributed the communication to be with the Mavi Marmara.  According to the IDF Spokesperson, “This transmission had originally cited the Mavi Marmara ship as being the source of these remarks, however, due to an open channel, the specific ship or ships in the ‘Freedom Flotilla’ responding to the Israeli Navy could not be identified.”

Public Intelligence

The Israel Defense Force released a video yesterday that it claimed contained audio of a conversation between Israeli naval vessels and the Turkish-owned ship Mavi Marmara.  The conversation is supposed to have occurred prior to the Israeli assault that killed at least 9 passengers and injured dozens more in the early hours of May 31 in international waters in the eastern Mediterranean. This audio clip, which has been given the title “Radio Transmission from Mavi Marmara to Israeli Navy”, appears to be an almost comical fabrication, utilizing separate pieces of audio spliced together to imitate a continuous interaction.  Unlike other clips which contain moving images, this clip features only a still photo.  It was released a day after Israel’s forced retraction of the claim that members of the aid flotilla were connected to Al-Qaeda.

The following is a transcript of the audio:

ISRAELI SHIP “This is the Israeli Navy, you are approaching an area which is under a naval blockade”

MAN’S VOICE 1 “Shut up, go back to Auschwitz.”

WOMAN’S VOICE “We have permission from the Gaza Port Authority to enter.”

MAN’S VOICE 2 “We’re helping Arabs go against the US, don’t forget 9/11 guy”

According to Ali Abunimah, Adam Shapiro, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement, has identified the woman’s voice as that of his wife Huwaida Arraf, chair of the Free Gaza Movement. However, Arraf was not aboard the Mavi Marmara. She was aboard one of the small passenger vessels in the six-boat flotilla, called Challenger 1.  In fact, Arraf appeared on Russia Today describing her experiences aboard that vessel.

To make matters worse, the IDF released a video depicting what seems to be the very same conversation some days prior.  However, there is no mention of Auschwitz or 9/11 in this video, only a reply of “Negative, negative, our destination is Gaza.”