Huwaida Arraf's Flotilla Fable on BBC

Andrea Levin
CAMERA
Media Analysis
08 June '10

Huwaida Arraf, a founder of the International Solidarity Movement, a leader of the Free Gaza Movement and a passenger on one of the "flotilla" vessels got to have her say on BBC Newsnight with anchor Kirsty Wark on June 2, 2010. Arraf made numerous absurd accusations against Israel with a straight face, and the interviewer let her get away with it. Trusting viewers — that is trusting the BBC to poke holes in a guest's dubious story — were led astray.

To her credit, Wark did begin by noting that videos of the Israeli landing on the Mavi Marmara, the large Turkish ship where passengers assaulted Israeli naval commandos, showed those on board were armed and ready with "sticks." Arraf, seemingly pained by the injection of such uncontestable context, simply denied knowledge of the reality documented in video clips appearing globally on networks and the Internet.

I don’t know. I can’t say that the people were armed and ready. We had discussed a lot about just using our bodies to repel an invasion by the Israelis.

The BBC interviewer let this go. And Arraf continued with a fable of heroic battle and attempted rescue of Gazans. Inevitably came the caricature of Israeli policy in Gaza — a picture devoid of any reference to the Palestinians' own responsiblity for their circumstances, especially their role in ongoing aggression against Israel. She said:

We were carrying ten thousand tons of different forms of aid needed in the Gaza Strip. From reconstruction supplies to school supplies and medical equipment. And while we fully intended, our goal was to reach Gaza with this aid, our goal is not to perpetuate this cycle of humanitarian aide because that is exactly what Israel's blockade is doing. It is squeezing the people of Gaza, letting a certain small amount of aid in that doesn't meet the needs of the people and is strictly limited to a few kinds of items, so thousands of items are denied entry on the pretext of security but actually they have nothing to do with security.

Like why won't Israel allow in baby formula, or paper, books, oxygen, anesthetics? These are the kinds of things that we were carrying on our ships.

While the BBC interviewer may, understandably, have needed to end the interview with the voluble Arraf, this absurd charge needed rebuttal and none was offered. Ms. Wark should, with all the information available about humanitarian aid to Gaza from Israel, have been prepared with facts. After all, the Free Gaza Movement has advertised its claims that there are massive shortages in Gaza and their flotilla ostensibly aimed to serve the people of Gaza. Israel has argued otherwise, distributing detailed information about the convoys of aid provided. All Wark needed was minimal preparation on this score, but she let Arraf's incendiary lies, among them that Israelis deprive babies of formula, stand unanswered.

(Read full analysis)

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