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Notícies :: indymedia : xarxa i llibertat |
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Indymedia Israel: Moving to Canada, far from the Israeli police |
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Publicador* Original: Yoash Foldesh (haaretz) |
Moving to Canada, far from the Israeli police
By Yoash Foldesh
"Bryan, get up! Wake up!" Two months ago, three burly policemen not in uniform entered Bryan Atinsky's bedroom in Rehovot after quickly brushing past his wife, Efrat, who got up to see who was knocking on the door at 6:30 A.M. The three said they had a search warrant. "They didn't waste any time and started opening drawers and searching the shelves, but they didn't show us any document," says Atinsky, 34.
"When they finished, they said my computer was confiscated and that I must come with them for questioning. Efrat continuously asked what I was suspected of, and they said `you tell us.' In the end, I asked if it was because of the caricature." And indeed, it was because of the caricature.
Atinsky is one of the volunteer English editorial coordinators of the Israeli Web site of the Indymedia network, an international anti-globalism organization set up after the protests against the International Monetary Fund as it met in Seattle. Like all the other branches of Indymedia, the Israeli site, which has been closed for the meantime, also enabled surfers to post announcements, articles and creations as they wished, alongside reports written by organization activists.
While the major media outlets are subject to the control of several stockholders, Indymedia tried to create an alternative medium open to the public at large. Its agenda also differed from that of the major media outlets: it included, for example, extensive reports on Israel Defense Forces operations in the territories and on violence on the part of settlers, and of course, attempts to expose the seamier side of big corporations.
"We don't censor anything," says Atinsky, "but the editors have the right to erase the link to reports that call directly for violence, racist reports, clearly false reports or those that have commercial interests behind them. The reports themselves are not erased from the servers nor are the responses they elicit, because we believe in transparency and freedom of information. In most cases, the intelligent responses expose the cheap provocations."
On December 19, a Brazilian surfer, called Latuf, took advantage of the site's freedom to post a caricature depicting Ariel Sharon enthusiastically kissing Adolf Hitler. Following the post, the Police's Computer Crime Investigation Unit began an inquiry, with the approval of the attorney general, into the possibility of incitement and insulting a civil servant. |
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