Israel scores a rare victory

DAVID ROSENBERG THE MEDIA LINE

Israel has scored a rare victory in its media battle with pro-Palestinian activists, but experts say it was less the result of a savvy media strategy and more a function of a changing Middle East.

Israeli authorities succeeded in preventing the vast majority of overseas activists from arriving en masse at Ben Gurion International Airport over the July 9-10 weekend for what was billed a “flytilla” by much of the media. Meanwhile, a flotilla trying to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip remained bottled up in Greek ports, with only two of the original fleet of 15 vessels still participating.

Israel’s success comes a year after the last flotilla to Gaza ended with nine activists killed in clashes with Israeli commandos raiding the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara. Israel blocked the boats from entering but the deaths drew vast media attention, a United Nations Security Council condemnation and a crisis with Turkey that has yet to be resolved.

“This time Israel had tacit international support,” said Jonathan Rynhold, a researcher at Israel’s Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies. “Nobody wanted a big incident with violence, no one wanted trouble…. Things are so delicate now in the Middle East and they didn’t want a big explosion.”

The failure of the flytilla and flotilla has important ramifications for both Israel and Palestinians, and their overseas supporters, as their decades-long conflict is increasingly fought in the media and diplomatic arenas. The Palestinians plan to turn unilaterally to the United Nations in September for recognition of their independence and activists have vowed a so-called Third Intifada of nonviolent protests that push Israel into an embarrassing corner if it responds with force.

Israel’s government came under withering criticism for its failure to gather proper intelligence or prepare diplomatically for the 2010 flotilla. This year, in contrast, the government was able to win support from many European governments to block the organizers. Greece, which was meant to be the staging ground for the boats, blocked their departure on technical grounds. The Turkish sponsors of the Mavi Marmara dropped out.

Failing to gain permission from the Greek authorities to sail, the Tahrir became the last ship to withdraw their vessel from the planned flotilla to Gaza, leaving only two still committed to reaching the coastal strip as of press time.

Among the 1,000 or more activists who had planned to descend on Ben Gurion over the weekend, only between 50 and 100 succeeded in reaching the West Bank, according to the Welcome to Palestine campaign, which had invited them. Israeli Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said about 200 activists were blocked from flying to Israel by European governments at their home airports while another 124 were arrested upon arrival and await deportation. There were no deaths or serious injuries.

“The diplomatic campaign was very successful because it was based on common interests,” said Eytan Gilboa, director of the School of Communications at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University. “Turkey, along with other European governments, didn’t like the activists because of incidents like demonstrations of G-8 conferences. They are tired of them as well.”

Indeed, the use of social media by pro-Palestinian activist may have undermined their cause by giving Israeli security officials access to their names and putting them on a no-fly list, said Gilboa. But the biggest factor helping Israel is the changed situation both in the Gaza Strip and the Middle East, experts said.

When the Free Gaza flotilla set off in May 2010, Israel was allowing only a minimal amount of goods into the Hamas-held Palestinian enclave. The deaths of the activists caused Israel to ease the blockade and Egypt has re-opened its border to travelers. Meanwhile, the Middle East has been shaken by the unrest of the Arab Spring, which has left the governments of Egypt and other countries less stable and more vulnerable to protests and unrest. A second Mavi Marmara incident might have reverberated across the region.

“Compared to last year, everything was done better on all fronts. Israel’s conduct in hasbara [public diplomacy] was much better than last year, but it was a less dominant factor than diplomacy and the change of policy vis-a-vis Gaza,” said Eran Shayson, director of the national security team at the Reut Institute in Tel Aviv. “The blockade was removed following the last flotilla and that more or less pulled the rug from under the activists’ feet,” he added.

According to many, Israel’s biggest failing remains in the media. Fadi Kattan, who is the media centre manager for the Welcome to Palestine campaign, concedes that the coalition didn’t bring in the 1,000 activists it planned, Still, he is satisfied that the arrests and other human rights he alleges that Israel is violating are drawing attention to the Palestinians’ plight.

“It got quite a bit of attention if you look at the newspapers and televisions across the world. CNN has been covering it. The Guardian had a few good pieces, the New York Times, the social networks have been moving big time, not enough, not enough, but it’s never enough,” he said.

In Israel, at least some commentators accused the government of handling the flytilla poorly by giving it more attention than it deserved, thereby raising the profile of the activists and their agenda. Ministers called the flytilla a “provocation” and the activists “hoodlums” and ordered hundreds of police to Ben Gurion.

“If the intention of the organizers of the flotilla and fly-in was to direct global attention to Gaza, Israel’s government and law enforcement agencies are doing everything to help them and even boost the resonance,” commentator Haim Zisovitz wrote in an op-ed for Yediot Ahronot, Israel’s biggest daily.

But Gilboa blames the problem on domestic politics, which demands politicians demonstrate to Israeli voters they are acting in the country’s defence. He concedes that this can boomerang when it comes to media coverage but, he said, that is the price Israel pays for being an open and democratic society.

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