On Hard Talk

Kenneth O’Keefe talks about the israeli terrorist attack on the MV Mavi Marmara which killed 9 humanitarian activists.

By: Paul de Rooij

This HardTalk interview with O’Keefe demonstrates the bankruptcy of journalism at the BBC. True to form, Sarah Montague, the interviewer, fires off an incessant number of hostile questions at the interviewee prefaced with “Israel says”, “Israel argues”, and “Israel claims”. This isn’t playing the “devil’s advocate”, this is playing “Israel’s advocate” role. NB: if one counts these prefaced questions with “Israel says/argues/claims” there are twenty two of them. The questions Montague avoids are the ones dealing with O’Keefe’s motivation to go to Gaza and to be such a committed freedom fighter (the word activist is rather lame when one witnesses his courage and decency). And the implication throughout is that the activists aboard the ships were merely asking for it and getting what they deserved given that they resisted. The focus is on the slice of time when the Israelis commandos stormed the ships killing some activists. The purpose of the trip and what led to this civil society action are avoided. In the process Montague manages to imply that it is the activists who are at fault — possibly criminal – and who also consort with unspeakable organizations such as “Hamas”. The evidence about IHH presented by Montague is certainly tainted, yet it is no bar to fling it against O’Keefe. Shouldn’t journalistic standards have implied that the BBC should have determined the veracity and credibility of the claims?

Journalism or quality interviews shouldn’t merely put forth the case of the opposing party – in this case it would be the issues disingenuously raised by Israel, the oppressor nation. The aim of quality journalism should be to determine what happened, and for this Montague should have asked “What happened on the Mavi Marmara?”, but even more important, she should have asked “why did you choose to go on the Mavi Marmara?” Instead all the questions dealt with “who initiated violence” or “was it worth it?” This is the same type of question asked of the Palestinian victims in Gaza after the 2008-2009 massacre by asking them “who do you think is responsible for this?”

And isn’t it amazing that it is the peace activist who gets questioned in this hostile manner? Now, would HardTalk countenance asking Israeli officials hostile questions about the nature of their assault on the Mavi Marmara? Would such questions be prefaced with “peace activists say/claim”? Would HardTalk ask about the nature of the siege it has imposed on Gaza with the consequent humanitarian disaster? Or would HardTalk ask about Dov Weissglas’ statement about “putting Palestinians on a diet”, a quotation that seems to cause much amusement among Israelis today. Given the nature of current day BBC, the possibility for asking such questions of Israeli officials would be non-existent.

Imagine for a second if during the apartheid years in South Africa if a peace activist had attempted a similar humanist gesture to help the oppressed black South Africans, and if such person had been beaten savagely by the soldiers. Would the BBC have prefaced hostile questions with “South Africa says” or “South Africa claims”? Would HardTalk have intimated that such person was the cause of violence? Or would they have avoided the main reasons that drove the activist to this level of sacrifice? If this analogy sounds preposterous, then why can Montague play such an ignominious role? This can only be explained by the pusillanimity and bias of BBC journalists and their editors. The order is out at the BBC to hide the true nature of the Israeli colonial project and it genocidal consequences. The order of the day for Montague was to put the onus on the peace activists and attempt to discredit them. But by discrediting the likes of O’Keefe, the only thing achieved is for the BBC to have discredited itself.

An American ‘Terrorist’ in London

By: Ken O'Keefe

Welcome to Orwell’s ‘1984’ ladies and gentlemen, where black is white, white is black, and the truth is nothing but a word.  My 1984 reality is culminating with the United States and Israeli Governments treating me and/or charging me with being a “terrorist”.  Americans worry not, you can sleep better at night knowing your “homeland” is being defended from the likes of me.  And Israel, rest easy as well, it’s Ken O’Keefe and his Arab collaborators who are in the Mossad crosshairs.

All kidding aside, I am a family man, with a beautiful family, a loving wife and baby boy, a boy who will be the biggest victim if his father is no longer in his life.

How did I get here?  Well, my life is an open book, and one chapter includes meeting with people who resist war and occupation, but the idea that I would be involved in violence beyond self-defense is absurd.  The character witnesses who truly know me will come out in force if ever I am locked up for conspiracy to commit a terrorist act.  The real reason why I have been named by Israel as ‘operative of the Hamas Terror organization’ is that I speak and defend the truth, and more importantly, I act on it.  The truth is that Hamas and every other government, group or individual does what just about any of us would do if we were oppressed and violated in the ways that are inherent in war/occupation.  We would resist.

I say to every red-blooded American, every European, every human, if someone came into your home, threatened your family, imprisons and even kills your family what would you do?  I do not care if every westerner of any station is afraid to say it, it is part of my purpose in life to say it, I would fight.  In fact I would kill before I would allow my family to be harmed.  I would fight to the death.

I say to my American brothers and sisters in particular, can you not see that the Iraqis, the Afghanis and the Palestinians are people?  They are mothers and fathers, uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters and sons and daughters.  They love their family every bit as much as you.  Imagine that you were in their shoes, would you be passive?  Would you sit by and watch your wife and child being violated?  Or would you fight?

I want every reader of this article to come on a journey with me. We are in our home, we are brothers, poor in terms of money but rich in our love of family, we love each other as brothers do.  Our wives are in the kitchen preparing food for our children.  We do our best, poor and impoverished, surrounded by war brought in the form of occupiers from half way around the world. The sound of rifle butts banging on the door shatters the semblance of peace.  You, my brother go to the door quickly, but not quickly enough. The door slams open and the soldiers from another land come storming in.

Press Release by Aloha Palestine regarding the MV Attack

Press Release from Aloha Palestine — the organization O’Keefe co-founded: IDF Accuses Ken O’Keefe of being an ‘Active Terror Operative’

Here is an excerpt from Part One of the Press Release:

Ken was transferred to Ben Gurion Airport on Wednesday and was due to be deported by the Israeli authorities to Istanbul, then repatriated to Dublin by the Irish officials. He refused deportation and demanded that he be sent to Gaza, or the Occupied Palestinian Territories, using his Palestinian travel documents (he was awarded Palestinian citizenship when he captained one of the two Free Gaza boats into Gaza in August 2008). The Israelis acknowledged that he is a Palestinian citizen, but refused his demand on the basis that his passport was invalid since it had not been registered.

The general atmosphere in the airport on Wednesday was quite chaotic, and a scuffle broke out. Ken was bashed on the forehead and then badly beaten by the Israeli officials/police. He sustaineds a large bloody gash on his head, and some bruised ribs. When I spoke with him he had a hoarse, croaky voice. He had been put in a head lock until he nearly passed out. His aggressor released Ken at the last possible moment. Ken refused medical attention because he was not allowed access to a lawyer, nor was he being allowed to make phone calls.

On Thursday Ken’s case went before a judge who ruled that he be detained pending deportation (Ken wanted to be released without charge).

Having already been complaining of dizziness following his first beating by Israeli police, Ken was beaten again that night in his cell. Again, he has refused treatment for his injuries. Ken was unable to eat for a few days as his throat was sore following being held in a head lock on Wednesday.

He wanted to appeal his deportation and go to Gaza, but his solicitor advised him that for his own safety he should leave Israel. The longer he stayed, the greater the detriment to his health. On Friday morning he signed his Emergency Travel Documents provided to him by the Irish Consulate and was booked onto a flight to Istanbul.

Israeli officials asked him to clean himself up as his face was bloody and he was quite dishevelled. He refused, as he wanted the world to see what had happened to him. The officials threatened to keep him in custody unless he co-operated, but he called their bluff, and was allowed to board his flight to Istanbul as he was. He was met by Irish Embassy staff and a press conference. He also gave an interview with Turkish newspaper the Hurriyet, which was featured on the front page. Prior to the press conference he had issued the following statement:

“I want to discuss my role in defending the ship and disarming two Israeli commandos along with conditions and treatment while in Israeli custody, including two beatings at the hands of Israeli agents.”

Ken will depart Istanbul on Wednesday 9th June for Dublin, where he will stay for two days before returning home to his wife and baby son on Friday 11th June.

Statement by Ken O'Keefe on the Mavi Marmara Attack

By: Ken O'Keefe

I have for many years understood that we, people of conscience, are the true holders of power in this world. Frustratingly however we have largely relinquished that power and failed to reach our full potential.  Our potential to create a better world, a just world.  Nonetheless I have conspired with others of like mind to reveal and exercise our true power.  In 2002 I initiated the TJP Human Shield Action to Iraq because I knew that the invasion of Iraq had been planned well in advance, that it was part of a ‘Global Spectrum Dominance’ agenda as laid out by the Project For A New American Century.

I knew that protests had no chance of stopping the invasion, and that largely these protests were just a way of making us feel better about the coming mass murder; by being able to say I protested against it.  With that understanding I argued that the only viable way to stop the invasion was to conduct a mass migration to Iraq.  A migration in which people from around the world, especially western citizens, would position themselves at sites in Iraq that are supposed to be protected by international law, but which are routinely bombed when it is only Iraqi, Palestinian, generally non-white, western lives who will be killed.  I felt 10,000 such people could stop the invasion, or at the very least, expose the invasion for what it was from the start, an act of international aggression, a war crime and a crime against humanity.

When our two double-decker buses travelled from London to Baghdad through Turkey, it was ever clear that the people of Turkey also could sense the power of this act, and they were the biggest participants in it.  In the end we did not get the numbers required to stop the war, with at least one million Iraqi’s dead as a result, but I remain convinced that it was within our power to prevent the invasion.  A massive opportunity lost as far as I am concerned...