Framing the Narrative: Israeli Commandos Seize Videotape and Equipment from Journalists After Deadly Raid
Who frames the narrative? After the Israeli military raided the Gaza aid flotilla and killed nine of the activists onboard, they detained almost everyone else�700 activists and journalists�hauled them to the Israeli port of Ashdod, and kept them largely out of communication with family, press and lawyers for days. The Israeli government confiscated every recording and communication device it could find, devices containing almost all the recorded evidence of the raid. The Israelis selected, edited, released footage they wanted the world to see.
Well, we�re joined now by two veteran journalists who were covering the Gaza Freedom Flotilla for Australia�s Sydney Morning Herald. We�re joined by chief correspondent Paul McGeough via Democracy Now! video stream from Istanbul.

PAUL McGEOUGH: Well, before they came on the ship, we were able to do our jobs as our contracts require of us. We were filing regular reports. We had satellites. We had handheld sat phones. We had computers that linked into those satellite phones. We had Kate�s very expensive cameras. Anywhere between $60,000 and $80,000 worth of equipment was confiscated from us, and we have not seen it. We were not given receipts for it.

But the thing that�talking to people who were on all of the boats, while we were in detention, the systematic attempt and very deliberate first priority for the Israeli soldiers as they came on the ships was to shut down the story, to confiscate all cameras, to shut down satellites, to smash the CCTV cameras that were on the Mavi Marmara, to make sure that nothing was going out. They were hellbent on controlling the story. If you go back to the Dubai disaster, where the story played so badly for the Israelis in January with the murder of the Hamas operative, they are so concerned and so aware of the importance of controlling the narrative at any volatile point in the crisis that their first priority was, as I said, to shut down any other story.


Veteran White House Reporter Helen Thomas Retires After Israel Remarks
Veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas has retired amid a firestorm of criticism over comments she made on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Widely known as �the dean of the White House press corps,� Thomas is the most senior White House correspondent and has covered every president since John F. Kennedy. In a brief video interview with the website RabbiLive.com, Thomas said her message to Israelis is to "get the hell out of Palestine." Thomas also suggested Israeli Jews should return to Poland, Germany or the United States. Thomas later issued a statement saying, "I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians. They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon."


Israel Seizes Another Gaza-Bound Aid Boat
Israeli commandos have seized another humanitarian aid boat headed to Gaza in an effort to break the blockade imposed by Israel on Gaza. Early on Saturday, Israel�s navy forcibly boarded an Irish-owned ship named the Rachel Corrie and then sailed it to an Israeli port. The boat was carrying 1,000 tons of medical and construction supplies for Gaza. Passengers included Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former UN Assistant Secretary-General Denis Halliday. The incident took place five days after Israeli commandos killed nine people on the Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship, the Mavi Marmara.


Israel Rejects Call for International Probe into Attack on Gaza Flotilla
While international condemnation of Israel continues, inside Israel the mood is quite different. An Israeli parliamentary panel recommended today that the Knesset revoke the privileges of Israeli Arab lawmaker Hanin Zoabi for participating in last week�s Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Right-wing demonstrators targeted a peace protest in Tel Aviv Saturday and reportedly attacked veteran Israeli activist, the eighty-six-year-old Uri Avnery.


Thousands Mourn Turkish Victims of Flotilla Attack
Up to 20,000 people gathered in Istanbul on Thursday to pay tribute to the nine activists killed in the attack. The coffins were carried through central Istanbul draped in Turkish and Palestinian flags. The youngest of the nine victims was nineteen-year-old US citizen Furkan Dogan. Dogan was born in Troy, New York and moved to Turkey when he was two years old. An autopsy showed he was shot at close range, once in the chest and four times in the head.


Passenger: Israeli Troops Fired at Unarmed Passengers, Ignored SOS Calls
As the dead are laid to rest, survivors of the flotilla attack continue to speak out about the assault on the Mavi Marmara. After returning to London, British peace activist and flotilla passenger Sarah Colborne said Israeli troops ignored SOS calls from the passengers aboard the ship.

Sarah Colborne: "We wrote a sign in Hebrew saying, 'SOS! Need medical assistance. People are dying. Urgent.' Hanin Zoabi, who�s a Knesset member, an Israeli Knesset member, took that sign to the front�to the back of the boat, where the soldiers were pointing at her. They ordered her to go back."

Colborne says she also witnessed Israeli troops shooting unarmed passengers and handcuffing medics accompanying the aid mission.


All Slain Flotilla Victims Suffered Bullet Wounds; 19-Year-Old US Citizen Among Dead
The bodies of the nine dead activists killed by Israeli troops in the attack on the Gaza aid flotilla have returned to Turkey. Forensic experts have confirmed that all nine were shot with guns. Eight of the victims were Turkish nationals, and one was a US citizen of Turkish origin. The US citizen has been identified as nineteen-year-old Furkan Dogan. He reportedly had four bullet wounds to the head and one to the chest. Some 450 of the remaining activists also arrived in Turkey earlier today after being released from Israeli custody. A number of wounded activists were immediately rushed to Turkish hospitals for medical treatment. Survivors of the assault continue to accuse Israel of firing on the ship before its soldiers rappelled aboard. Al Jazeera cameraman Issam Zatari spoke out on Wednesday after returning home to Belgium.

Issam Zatari: "The Israeli soldier started jumping from the chopper to the surface of the boat, was firing, started firing from the air, to anyone, and then threw a chemical bomb, a sounding bomb, and gas bomb, a lot of noisy things you can listen at the same time. And I was lucky because I was filming all the things. And in around six minute they start to attacking our boat."


Israeli Military Retracts Claim Passengers "Al Qaeda Mercenaries"
The Israeli military, meanwhile, has been forced to retract its claim that passengers aboard the flotilla were agents of al-Qaeda. An Israel Defense Forces press release sent out two days after the assault says approximately forty flotilla passengers "are mercenaries belonging to the Al Qaeda terror organization." The independent journalist Max Blumenthal says both he and an Israeli colleague asked the Israeli military press office to substantiate its claim. No evidence was provided, and one day later the press released was modified. The original headline was changed from "Attackers of the IDF Soldiers Found to be Al Qaeda Mercenaries" to "Attackers of the IDF Soldiers Found Without Identification Papers." Commenting on the retraction, Blumenthal writes, "The more Israel�s claims about the flotilla�s terrorist links are challenged, the more they fall apart."


Swedish Dockers Boycott Israeli Goods, Ships in Flotilla Protest
Israel continues to face worldwide protest over the flotilla assault. In Sweden, the Swedish Dockers� Union has announced a more-than-week-long boycott of all ships and goods originating from or destined to Israel. We�ll have more on the flotilla assault after headlines.


Report: Israel Had Assassination List
Passengers who were aboard the Mavi Marmara continue to provide new accounts of the Israeli assault. Some are now claiming they discovered a list of people the Israeli military intended to assassinate during their raid on the ship. The Independent of London reports passengers seized a booklet during their altercations with the Israeli forces who rappelled aboard. The passengers claim the booklet contained names and pictures of passengers the Israeli military intended to shoot dead. The Israeli military has denied the existence of an assassination list, and the claims could not be independently corroborated. A Turkish autopsy report shows the nine slain victims were shot a total of thirty times, many at close range. The Guardian newspaper reports five of those killed were shot either in the back of the head or in the back.


Tristan Anderson Returns Home to California
The American activist Tristan Anderson has returned home to California for the first time since he was critically injured fifteen months ago when Israeli soldiers fired a high-velocity tear gas canister directly at his head. Anderson was shot while taking part in a weekly nonviolent protest against Israel�s separation wall in the West Bank village of Ni�lin. The shooting caused severe traumatic brain injury and blindness in his right eye. The thirty-nine-year-old Anderson remains in a wheelchair and has not yet regained the use of the left side of his body. Supporters of Tristan have published a recent photograph of him on the website justicefortristan.org. It is the first photo released since Tristan was injured.


NPT Signatories Call on Israel to Open Nuclear Sites
The Israeli attack came two days after signatories to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty approved a resolution backing a nuclear-free Middle East and calling on Israel to open its nuclear sites to international inspection. The measure was approved by consensus by all 189 NPT signatories, including the United States. Egypt�s ambassador to the UN, Maged Abdelaziz, hailed it as a major step forward.

Maged Abdelaziz: "The road ahead is not easy, but it is the only way forward. Today�s reaffirmation by the conference of the importance of Israel�s accession to the treaty and the placement of all its nuclear facilities under IAEA comprehensive safeguards confirms the continued resolve of the state�s parties to pursue the 1995 and 2000 commitments in this respect."

Israel is the only Middle East state not to have signed the NPT. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected the measure, calling it biased for excluding Iran.


The Pixies Cancel Concert in Israel
The legendary alternative rock group the Pixies have become the latest artists to cancel a scheduled performance in Israel following boycott calls. Concert organizers say the cancellation was linked to the Israeli assault on the Free Gaza flotilla. The move came days after the British group Gorillaz also canceled an upcoming concert in Israel. Other artists to cancel Israel performances in recent months include Elvis Costello, Carlos Santana and Gil Scott-Heron.


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