A video started making the rounds yesterday with the title, “THE 19 YEAR OLD FURKAN’S MOMENT OF DEATH.” It shows Israeli soldiers who appear to be kicking and then shooting someone on the upper deck of the Mavi Marmara.
I have now located earlier footage from Turkey’s Cihan News Agency from which the Furkan video was compiled. It is now apparent that due to some “creative” editing, the sequence of actions in the Furkan video are not those of the actual timeline. Still, we do know from autopsy results that several of those who died were shot at close range and such a killing may indeed be shown in this video.
The truth behind what the video depicts will only become known if the soldiers involved face questioning and if all the existing video is made available to independent investigators. If the Israeli Defense Forces have nothing to hide, they should welcome an international inquiry.
“for the first time in all of human history mankind is politically awakened-that’s a total new reality- it has not been so for most of human history”, Zbigniew Brzezinski, April, 2010, Montreal.
The elites are beginning to feel scared. I hope the reactions of the world will begin to remind them of Paris, 1969!
I invite you to watch today’s newly uncensored video and organise your communities!
http://www.culturesofresistance.org/gaza-freedom-flotilla.
Paul, I’ve been viewing your wise comments for a long time now, and you’ve become my No1 view.
So I was disappointed by your dismissal of the ‘Furkan Dogan Video’. (There is no non-sequential stuff that I can see).
The media team on board Mavi Marmara had a complex operation, streaming video from different sources, including a pool TV camera, ship’s security cameras, etc, and then broadcasting it (as it came in) to different news agencies, etc, including the IHH, which was what I saw, live. They used a secret frequency to try and avoid Israeli jamming.
The Turkish coordinator of all this was shot relatively early, from a helicopter, so it’s not at all surprising that there was great confusion.
Whether the person who was killed was actually Furkan Dogan or not (there is no visual evidence of who it was, and will be none while Israel holds all the passengers’ media) the fragmentary sequence shows a deliberate murder.
You can see testimony from a very involved eye-witness here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gp8ECrDQLg&feature=player_embedded
I’m not suggesting that you have become a media whore, but I do feel you should consider your high standing in the blogosphere before you apply it to condemn a few out-takes of video, thereby casting doubt on perhaps all of the only true evidence we have.
It is this video that contains numerous jump cuts and edits. The later sequence of the commandos kicking whoever is on the floor is a repeat of an earlier section. What is needed is the raw footage without TV editing.
I see a few logistical problems with attributing this video to the death of the 19 year old Furkan Dogan, or anyone for that matter.
First, we have know idea who or what the soldiers are kicking, so to conclude it is Furkan Dogan, or even a person (although I personally presume it is) is fallacious and based on pure conjecture.
Second, there is no smoke, no flash, no recoil, no sound, no ejected shell casings, and no movement of the gun as a result of shots being fired (What appears to be the bolt does not even move).
Third, unless that long rifle is a TAR-2 sub machine gun (which it doesn’t look like because of the length of the gun, the shape of the butt, and the distance between the grip and foldable foregrip) then the caliber of the gun wouldn’t have been 9mm, which the autopsies have confirmed were the caliber found within Furkan Gogan, and the rest (save 1) of the dead activists.
Fourth, the soldier is left handed and the butt of the gun is against his left shoulder, therefore, he would have pulled the trigger with his left hand. The video attributes the movement of his right hand as being the trigger pulls. This is not how one would fire a gun. It is more likely he is adjusting the magazine, or the other attachments on the gun, and in one of the movements of his right hand that is attributed to shots being fired, it is apparent he is pulling out a foldable foregrip (something that would have been done before any shots were fired anyways)
Since that is a paintball gun, it seems unlikely that the video shows an execution. Looks more like a kick to knock down someone who is attempting to get back up, followed by a paintball (or pepperball from a paintball gun) shot when the kick didn’t discourage him from trying again.
Paint ball gun? What a delusional thing to say. At least nine people were killed. Nine activists were killed with 30 bullets.
My apologies; the published video film clearly has a sound disconnect between Bulent Yildirim’s broadcast statement and Al Jazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal’s later broadcast.
However, I don’t consider this proves the whole video is a fake. I was puzzled by a later extract (during Elshayyal’s broadcast) showing more kicking and the departure of the two Israeli commandos. This seems to have been inserted into the original to pad it out a bit – a mistake.
Those who have been paying attention have, by now, become accustomed to the fictional nature of much of the video being passed off as “documentary evidence of Israeli brutality”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Lebanon_War_photographs_controversies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_al-Durrah#Questions_about_the_footage
etc.
Perhaps it’s a cultural thing; perhaps the Western belief that “the truth will speak for itself” without “improvement” is itself a product of our culture? In any event, it is unfortunate, as it does obscure the reality of the situation, and undermines the Palestinians’ case rather than bolstering it.
So Turkish media made edits also to the version of videotape it released. Just as Israel did. The Turks, though, probably did what Israel claimed to do: edit to highlight, perhaps to dramatize. On the other hand, Israel edited to falsify, to conceal, to deceive.
It was indeed a mistake for Turkish media to make edits. In a situation as touchy as this, the only correct procedure is to release the video footage unedited for audio and sound. If additions are made, they should be limited to voiceovers and pointing arrows on “instant replays” that follow the footage as an appendix.
Despite the theatrical edits, the Turkish video is far more truthfully informative than the Israeli one is. How do I know? Well, think a minute about reputations. What is Israel’s reputation for honesty? Poor? No, worse than that. Israel is a liar and always has been a liar. The essential conclusions that can be drawn from the Turkish video, however, if not all of the timeline details, is supported by testimony from people known to be morally courageous and honest.
A comparison can be made here. Soon after Israel’s attack on the flotilla that included Mavi Marmara, Hamas inflated the number of people who were murdered by the Israeli commandos, making nine into dozens. Hamas did this for the sake of immediate emotional impact. But Hamas was a fool to do so, since Israel could be expected, later, to use any slightest exaggeration by its opposition to destroy their credibility, even though Israel’s own lies are more brazen and more fundamentally false. Hamas should have been content to report that the Israelis had murdered NINE humanitarian activists, one of them a US citizen, while committing an act of piracy.
In the same way, Turkish media should have been content to show the video unedited, and afterward add an appendix to give emphasis to what needed emphasizing.
Indeed zzz05. There have been too many lies…
http://wp.me/PDB7k-Y
perhaps it’s a cultural thing zzz05?
http://wp.me/PDB7k-Y#Muslims-urinated-next-to-Torah
http://wp.me/PDB7k-Y#Gaza-greenhouses
http://wp.me/PDB7k-Y#minimizing-civilian-casualties
http://wp.me/PDB7k-Y#Hamas-charter
http://wp.me/PDB7k-Y#Hamas-uniform
The first squad to land came in with paintball markers (which are commonly used for riot control) and handguns. The object show in in this video does look and behave (and sound) like a paintball marker.
The people who were killed were killed with 9mm ammo, which is consistent with handguns. 30 rounds equals 3 magazines, and close range should be no surprise. If you are trying to use a gun to fend off a mob with clubs and knives, you will wind up shooting people at close range. This video makes no sense for that context. Handgun training usually involves learning to shoot a whole magazine through in rapid succession, and that is not what we hear here.
Omri
http://talknic.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/paintballgun1.jpg
Meanwhile… A flagged ship is Sovereign territory of the Sovereign flag.
Laws of War
SECTION I
ON BELLIGERENTS
CHAPTER I
The Qualifications of Belligerents
Art. 2.
The inhabitants of a territory which has not been occupied, who, on the approach of the enemy, spontaneously take up arms to resist the invading troops without having had time to organize themselves in accordance with Article 1, shall be regarded as belligerents if they carry arms openly and if they respect the laws and customs of war.
——–
Also according to United States v. Flores, 289 U.S. 137 (1933) (still being taught in US Law colleges) : a crime committed on a ship of one sovereign while it is in the territorial waters of a second sovereign or in International Waters, is within the jurisdiction of the first.
Intriguing….Turkey it would seem, has a RIGHT to investigate under International Law
This articles helps enlighten specially the young generation the truth about the status of the world, but sometimes people seem to doesn’t care, but if we keep on writting and reading this kind of realities this might awaken the spirit to fight for justice and truth. please send to my email every issue being posted on your blog. thank you so much.