Day 341: Britain’s outsize role in Israel’s genocide

Ali Abunimah The Electronic Intifada Podcast 12 September 2024

If you’re a regular reader of our articles highlighting The Electronic Intifada’s weekly livestream, you might notice a difference this week: There’s no YouTube video.

That’s because the Google-owned video and streaming platform imposed a punitive freeze on The Electronic Intifada’s channel for seven days. I’ll say more on that below.

But don’t worry, you can still watch the whole program – just not on YouTube.

You can watch the recording of this week’s show in the X/Twitter video viewer above, but you’ll need to drag the slider forward to 36 minutes into the video – that’s when the program actually starts.

You can also watch it directly on the X/Twitter website or on Facebook.

Highlights from the jam-packed program are also embedded throughout this article.

You can listen to the program in the SoundCloud player at the bottom of this page.

Our headline story was an enlightening conversation with Matt Kennard, of the investigative publication Declassified UK, about Britain’s outsize role in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people.

We started with a news brief from associate editor Nora Barrows-Friedman covering recent developments in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, including the horrific massacre in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, where Israel dropped massive bombs on refugee tents, killing 40 people, half of whom were totally obliterated.

We also talked about Tuesday’s presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, respectively the Democratic and Republican candidates in the United States.

Both competed to display more support for Israel, and Harris doubled down on her lies about 7 October mass rapes, fabrications and atrocity propaganda that Israel has used to try to justify its genocide.

And we discussed how ABC, Australia’s national broadcaster, has become the first mainstream Western outlet to report extensively on Israel killing its own citizens in large numbers on 7 October – a topic on which The Electronic Intifada has broken many stories, right back to the first days of the genocide.

“We can’t say for sure that they’re copying our coverage,” observed associate editor Asa Winstanley, “but they go back to a lot of the same sources.”

YouTube censorship

A few hours before we were scheduled to go live on 11 September, we received a notification that YouTube had deleted three videos from The Electronic Intifada’s channel claiming that we had violated their “community guidelines” related to “violent criminal organizations.”

Clearly YouTube is not referring to the Israeli army, which is what springs to my mind when I hear that phrase.

The videos YouTube removed were in fact months-old livestream segments featuring contributing editor Jon Elmer, explaining and analyzing footage published by resistance organizations in Gaza of combat with Israeli forces.

YouTube does not tell us what specifically it objects to, making it very difficult for us to understand how – if it is even possible – to avoid this increasingly draconian and arbitrary censorship.

As punishment for doing journalism, YouTube froze our channel for seven days. We are not allowed to post any videos there, and that’s also why we could not broadcast the livestream there.

As I said at the start of this week’s program, we completely reject YouTube’s vague accusations: Regular viewers know that The Electronic Intifada provides professional, ethical, responsible and factual journalism and analysis. So we view this action as blatant political censorship.

With respect to our livestreams, Jon explained on this week’s show how in every resistance video we air, we edit out any kind of graphic violence, loss of life or injury.

Because we understand that speech related to Palestine is a particular target of censorship and suppression, we go above and beyond journalistic and broadcast standards in terms of removing any graphic content.

Many other channels post the same videos, but totally unedited, and I am not aware that they are being censored the way we are.

Indeed, YouTube insiders have leaked to Wired that there has been growing discontent at the company over what the tech publication calls “a pattern of inconsistent moderation of content relating to Israel’s war with Hamas.”

“The sources believe management at the world’s most popular video platform have been playing favorites and scrabbling to justify takedowns – or find exceptions to keep content up,” Wired reported in July.

Eric Sype, the US national organizer for Haifa-based 7amleh, an organization that monitors internet censorship of Palestinians, told Wired, “We have firsthand experience of YouTube and Google employees telling us that videos clearly inciting violence and racism against Palestinians do not violate the companies policies, while educational videos posted by Palestinian creators have to be age restricted, labeled as graphic, or simply just taken down.”

Despite the censorship, The Electronic Intifada will continue to bring our readers and viewers reporting and analysis that they cannot easily get from any other English-language source, documenting a world-historic moment in the struggle for Palestine’s liberation.

Our mission is purely educational and journalistic, but the reality of increasing censorship and repression in Western so-called democracies is making journalism – real journalism, not stenography for the government – ever more difficult.

But we will remain committed to that mission no matter what.

Fortunately, we were able to livestream the program on other platforms – Instagram and Twitch, as well as on X/Twitter and Facebook.

Because it is such a dominant video platform, arguably an effective monopoly, we will continue to try to use YouTube to reach as many people as we can.

At the same time we will explore broadcasting on additional platforms to try to mitigate the risk we face from censorship.

Now, more about this week’s program.

Small country, outsize role in genocide

Britain supplies weapons to Israel, but the amount is relatively small compared, say, to the United States or Germany.

For that reason, some people may think London’s role in Israel’s genocide is less significant.

“But it’s a key player in supporting the Israeli war machine through logistics and intelligence,” Matt Kennard told the livestream.

And much of that support is channeled through RAF Akrotiri, a sprawling British air force base in Cyprus, just 30 minutes flying time from Gaza.

Kennard is the co-founder and head of investigation at Declassified UK, an outlet which focuses on British national security issues.

In May, Kennard revealed that the British air force, the RAF, had flown about 200 spy flights over Gaza since December.

All operated from RAF Akrotiri.

As well as surveillance, Declassified UK’s reporting has also shown that the British government may be supporting Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza more directly.

On the ground in Gaza?

Getting any information is extremely difficult, however. Weeks into the genocide, as Kennard explained, The Sun reported that the SAS, an elite British military unit, was in Cyprus preparing to “rescue hostages and Brits stranded in Gaza.”

Almost immediately, the “D-Notice” committee, a British government body that censors reporting on “national security” matters, issued a directive to publications not to report on SAS activities in Gaza.

“So the SAS are likely in Israel,” Kennard said. “And what is likely is that they would have an advisory role with the Israeli military about their ground invasion. But it’s possible that they could be on the ground in Gaza, or could have been at certain points.”

According to Kennard, RAF Akrotiri is also a major base for arms transfers. Dozens of military cargo aircraft have flown from the base to Israel since the genocide began. The British government refuses to disclose what they are carrying.

And Akrotiri may well have been used by Israel itself.

In June, Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah, warned Cyprus that the Lebanese resistance group would respond against the island nation if it allowed Israel to operate from its territory.

“The Cypriot government should be warned that opening its airports and bases to the enemy to target Lebanon means it has become part of the war,” Nasrallah said.

Nasrallah said that Israeli forces had trained in Cyprus, but he did not specify which facilities they had used.

The British bases in the country are not under the direct control of the Cyprus government, but under that of London, as the UK considers them its own sovereign territory – parts of the island Britain retained when it ended its formal colonial rule in 1960.

However, according to Kennard, there are indications that Israel itself has used RAF Akrotiri during the genocide.

He noted that in February, the Express, a British newspaper, reported that London had withdrawn permission for Israel’s US-built F-35 warplanes to land at Akrotiri until “hostilities” in Gaza end.

“​​So the imputation was they previously had that access,” Kennard said, adding that the UK continues to supply parts and servicing for the Israeli F-35s.

There have been growing protests by antiwar activists in Cyprus against British and American use of the bases to attack Yemen and to support the genocide in Gaza.

Activists in the country have credited Declassified UK with helping uncover the extent of those operations, according to Kennard.

Shrinking press freedom

We also talked about the growing repression against journalists and activists in the UK, including the years-long imprisonment and persecution of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, and the recent arrests of Sarah Wilkinson and Richard Medhurst under draconian “anti-terrorism” laws.

Kennard was speaking to The Electronic Intifada from Germany and revealed that for the first time in his career he had traveled abroad on a reporting trip without his laptop, as he was concerned by the risk that he might be detained, questioned and have his equipment confiscated on his return to the UK.

That has happened recently to other journalists, including Medhurst.

Although it is receding, Kennard said, “we still have a degree of freedom.”

“So if we’re not using that to expose our complicity in this horror, then we’re not doing our job right, and we’re not being moral individuals,” he added.

Resistance report

In his report this week, contributing editor Jon Elmer covered the latest resistance news from Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. You can watch segments of his reporting below.

The Electronic Intifada’s Tamara Nassar produced and directed the program and Maureen Clare Murphy contributed writing and production. Eli Gerzon contributed post-production assistance.

Past episodes of The Electronic Intifada livestream can be viewed on our YouTube channel.

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Comments

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Ibrahim replied on

Thanks, Ali for the summary. The suspension of the EI on YouTube exemplifies the digital imperialism of western tech corporate monopoly which is embedded in the Zionist settler colonial project.

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Ahmad Hamdan replied on

In Google Translate, write "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." and translate to Hebrew. Where is Palestine?! Add a line break after the comma and see what happens.

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Colin replied on

I tried what you suggest, and it did translate it properly, but underneath are two options;
The land of Isreal will be free
The land of Palestine will be free

Just check/tick the latter, to teach the machine :)

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Colin Smith replied on

Hi Ali. I am thrilled to be watching your current YouTube production in reaction to the German government’s outrageous threat to prosecute you. lt is an invaluable testament. I would appreciate a copy to work from. Can you publish it? As a 78 year old lifelong socialist many of your references to the Nazi remnants of the Hitler regime are known to me, but some are new. I spent my life at sea, and on one ship there was an unreconstructed Nazi German Captain who declared “They tried to deNazify me, but l spit in their face”. A German engineer on board displayed the group-think and regimented thought l have come to associate with that country. The US rehabilitated Naziism in its crusade against ‘communism’. Sadly, they have not changed. Please publish your riposte to this immoral threat.

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Restoration replied on

This is interesting...hmmmmm... It's indeed thought-provoking to see how Britain's role is deeply extended beyond merely supplying arms. It also underlines the usage of RAF Akrotiri for surveillance and logistical support-something that global powers can do to shape conflicts in ways not immediately perceivable to the public. Such raising questions to accountability and the extent to which external actors should be held responsible for their complicity in such tragedies.

Ali Abunimah

Co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of The Battle for Justice in Palestine, now out from Haymarket Books.

Also wrote One Country: A Bold-Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. Opinions are mine alone.