How Israel twists the truth to make themselves victims - Miko Peled

I was reading a story in Ynet, the online site of the Israeli paper Yediot Aharonot, when a few paragraphs into the story I noticed an ad promoting the “Yediot Aharonot & Ynet Conference to Combat the Boycott.” The Israeli daily says that it decided to put all of its resources to fight the BDS campaign, a fight which it describes as “not easy and requires combining all the available resources.” Reporting on the upcoming conference Ynet writes: “The main culprit behind the boycott of Israel is the BDS movement which is conducting a worldwide campaign.”  Ynet characterizes BDS methods as being “without knives or missiles but with an explosive payload consisting of outrageous lies.” The conference will take place in Jerusalem on March 28. Furthermore they add, “any conclusions reached at the conference will be made available in order to assist government agencies and other national institutions that deal with the boycott.”

Israel, in contrast to the BDS movement, conducts its campaigns by shooting missiles into heavily populated areas and by planting knives on bodies of young Palestinians killed by the IDF.

In the opening page of the site promoting this conference it says the following:

“Israel has no get-out-of-criticism-free card. Unfortunately, defending itself against terrorism generates injustices and harms the innocent.” The age-old excuse of – we don’t mean to kill civilians but because we have to fight terrorism, “collateral damage” is inevitable. Then it goes on, “make no mistake: the BDS movement does not take aim solely at the "occupation" of Judea and Samaria, but against the very idea that Jews have a right to a state of their own.” The word occupation is actually in quotation marks. Ynet continues to explain that, “As part of this campaign and as a result of the recognition of the burning national need to provide the government with a strong tailwind and the tools with which to fight BDS, we decided to hold a special conference entitled “Stop the Boycott,” with the participation of statesmen and women, political leaders and key figures in the fields of culture, the economy and law from Israel and around the world.” Speakers will include the President of Israel, (the village fool), Reuven Rivlin, Naftali Benet, (a proud, confessed murderer and now minister of education), Yaacov Hertzog (supposedly head of the opposition party), Millionaire Ron Lauder and many others.

As it happens, the story I was originally reading on Ynet when I came upon the conference information was not unrelated to this subject.
 
It is about a group of Israelis who came to the US to speak on behalf of the fringe pro-Israeli group Stand With Us. The headline in Ynet reads: “BDS Activists Blew Up a Lecture by Israelis in the US” and the headline continues: “Israeli students who came to the US on a Hasbara mission, were attacked by BDS activists.” “Blew Up” and “attacked,” such violence on a Florida campus and not a word of it in the local press!

A video of the event was embedded in the article and to my great surprise no one was blown up or attacked. Two Israelis were speaking in a small classroom at the University of Southern Florida, and at the back of the class stood a group of young people with banners and Palestinian flags. Also standing in the back of the class was Tariq Abu Khdeir, the cousin of slain Palestinian youth, Mohammad Abu Khdeir.

“Do you know me? Do you recognize my face?” Tariq asked the two speakers. They seemed not to recognize him. “You guys terrorize my people and you terrorize my village.” Tariq continued, and as he was speaking other students raised a large poster showing a photo of Tariq.  In the photo Tariq’s face is so swollen that he is barely recognizable.  
Following the kidnap and burning of Tariq’s cousin Mohammad Abu Khdeir in July 2014, Israeli soldiers grabbed Tariq, brutally beat him and arrested him. The beating was caught on video and went viral. Since Tareq is a US citizen this video was embarrassing to both the Israeli and the US governments.

“That’s me.”

“What’s you’re name?” one Israeli speaker asks, they sent a guy and a girl there to speak.

“Tariq Abu Khdeir”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what happened, I am not familiar with the story.”

It’s hard to decide which is the bigger lie, the headline describing BDS supporters blowing up and attacking Israelis, or the claim by the Israeli speaker that she was not familiar with the Abu Khdeir story. Clearly, dishonesty is the nature of Israeli Hasbara and is also deeply rooted in the Israeli press. According to Ynet, the Israeli speakers come to the US on behalf of Stand with Us, to speak to American students about the human side of the IDF. The story quotes the speakers as they relay their experiences:

“Shir, who studies political science and communication at Tel-Aviv University and is a veteran of the IDF military intelligence said that as part of the organization’s program, IDF veterans come to the US to tell their personal stories.” What Shir described did not sound like anyone blew anything up, nor attacked her. Her chief complaint was that at no point did the Palestinian students attempt to “engage them in dialogue” but rather “went in and out of the classroom in an effort to disrupt the lecture.”  Yitzhak, the second speaker complained to Ynet: “they showed no interest to hear us.” Well, that’s gotta hurt. To travel all the way from Israel to the US, all expenses paid by the government of Israel, in order to promote lies about the IDF, and then to encounter people who are unwilling to listen to you! According to Ynet, the culprits behind the disruption of these Israeli Hasbara agents are no other then the BDS movement, which has now become enemy no.1

And so, Yedioit Aharonot and Ynet are inviting everyone to attend their Jerusalem conference on how to combat BDS. And they tell us, the conference will only cost 200 Israeli shekels, about $50 US, and the catering is fully certified kosher.

http://ahtribune.com/human-rights/591-conference-bds.html