Former military spokesperson Avital Leibovich is a reserve officer in the Israeli army and director of the American Jewish Committee’s Israel office.

Leibovich delivered a slide presentation that whitewashed Israel’s killings of Palestinian civilians.

It was pure propaganda and the only other speaker on the panel was a former CIA agent who was unlikely to offer any challenge.

A few slides into her presentation, Leibovich was interrupted by activists from the anti-war group CODEPINK.

They went onto the stage with large signs bearing the names of journalists whose slayings Leibovich had excused, as they shouted, “Avital Leibovich is a propagandist for the Israeli war machine.”

As the protesters were escorted out by security, other voices in the audience shouted, “Free Palestine” and demanded Leibovich address her involvement in the extrajudicial execution of Palestinian media workers, but to no avail.

As Leibovich continued her presentation, she proceeded to excuse Israel’s deliberate killing of whole families in Gaza with a video showing grainy Israeli drone footage that she argued was proof of Palestinian fighters using civilians as human shields.

Ignoring killings

The Newseum hosted Leibovich for the live event on 7 June, to discuss “the social media branch of the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and how the organization uses media and social media during its various campaigns.”

The Newseum pushed ahead with the event despite objections from the Palestinian Journalists’ Syndicate that providing a platform to Leibovich would “directly undermine our ability as journalists to conduct our professional duties without fear from fatal attacks.”

Moderated by Newseum CEO Jeffrey Herbst, the event included no discussion of Israel’s deliberate attacks on media or Leibovich’s role in them.

Palestinian journalists Mahmoud al-Kumi, 29, and Hussam Salama, 30, were targeted for assassination by Israel during its November 2012 bombing campaign in Gaza.

Following the killing of a third journalist, Muhammad Abu Eisha, it was Leibovich who publicly justified the attacks, telling the AP that the reporters were “Hamas operatives.”

Leibovich also admitted that Israel bombed an office building in Gaza knowing it housed journalists.

“Such terrorists, who hold cameras and notebooks in their hands, are no different from their colleagues who fire rockets aimed at Israeli cities and cannot enjoy the rights and protection afforded to legitimate journalists,” Leibovich wrote in The New York Times .

Human Rights Watch concluded that such justifications amounted to “evidence of war crimes because they show intent.”

Ironically, al-Kumi and Salama are included on the Newseum’s own Journalists Memorial, despite a temporarily successful pressure campaign in 2013 by the anti-Palestinian group Foundation for Defense of Democracies to have their names removed.

As The Intercept’s Zaid Jilani points out, the Newseum honored them again on Monday in a rededication ceremony for journalists slain in the line of duty.

One day later, the institution hosted an event starring the woman who justified killing them.

Pushed over the edge

Appalled by the content of Leibovich’s presentation, journalist and author Max Blumenthal spoke up, daring Leibovich to show the video of Israeli snipers killing unarmed 22-year-old Salem Shamaly as he called out desperately for his family in the rubble of Gaza’s Shujaiya neighborhood in 2014.

Blumenthal was eventually removed by security, garnering applause from Israel’s supporters, one of whom called him a Nazi.

I’m not typically one to participate in disruptions and hadn’t planned to engage in protest at this event. I much prefer to observe and report.

But after Blumenthal’s ejection, Leibovich began to laugh, as though the complaints about her conduct were a joke.

As a journalist, I could not in good conscience remain quiet as an institution that claims to be “dedicated to free expression” provided a friendly platform to a government official who justifies killing media workers.

So I spoke up and demanded that Leibovich and the Newseum address the concerns raised by those who interrupted her presentation.

Herbst urged me to wait until end, at which time he assured me there would be an opportunity for “civil discussion.”

I responded that the civilians snuffed out in Leibovich’s propaganda video weren’t given the luxury of a civil discussion. Soon enough, I was escorted out to the hateful jeers of Israel supporters, one of whom called me an anti-Semite.

After the event, I learned that Leibovitch refused to answer questions by people who waited patiently until the end to ask about her role in the killing of Palestinian journalists.

But the event did not go as Israel’s propaganda officials must have hoped.

The audience appeared to be composed mostly of Palestine solidarity activists, which was reinforced by a protest at the Newseum’s entrance.

And Leibovich, who bills herself as a “social media expert,” became the subject of criticism on social media by people angered by Israel’s slayings of journalists.

As for the Newseum, it made a mockery of everything it claims to stand for.

As Blumenthal and I made our way out of the building, we were struck by the quotes carved into the Newseum’s walls about the importance of journalistic freedom and free expression.

Tags

• Newseum
• Avital Leibovich
• American Jewish Committee
• Jeffrey Herbst
• Mahmoud al-Kumi
• Hussam Salama
• Muhammad Abu Eisha
• Max Blumenthal
• CODEPINK
• free speech
• attacks on journalists

• Rania Khalek's blog

• Facebook
• Twitter

Comments

Avital Leibovich

Permalink janice la pinta replied on Wed, 06/08/2016 - 22:53

Those who call Max a Nazi cant see that that is what they exactly are? The speaker Leibovich justifying murdering journalists because they hold a camera to show the truth, makes them 'terrorists'? What a justification that is! NOT!!

Max, you are one courageous

Permalink Darin replied on Thu, 06/09/2016 - 05:43

Max, you are one courageous fellow. I do not, for the life of me, understand how the hardcore Zionists adhere to views that include such unreconcilable exclusions of humanity. It's clear, though, that they are dangerous to anyone who challenges them. My hat is off to you. You, too Rania.

Thanks to all who who raised their voices.

Permalink tom hall replied on Thu, 06/09/2016 - 10:27

To speak out is a heroic action.

the Newseum

Permalink Carol Scheller replied on Thu, 06/09/2016 - 15:11

I have never heard of this institution, but perhaps the people who invited Ms Leibovich had never seen or heard her speak for the official Israel during the different major attacks on the Gaza Strip. How anyone could have actually invited her as a social media expert is beyond me. I imagine that the Newseum will have its reputation (of which I am unaware) forever besmirched for having hosted such an individual and on top of it refused a place to bona fide journalists with a different, infinitely more informed point of view.

Now, now (SARC ALERT)

Permalink JD replied on Thu, 06/09/2016 - 15:35

(SARC ALERT) Now, now, if you only had waited until after the end, I believe the presenter et al would have been more than forthright. (SARC ALERT!)

all the news that fits

Permalink tom hall replied on Sat, 06/11/2016 - 08:55

Here's an interesting brief account from the Newseum's own site.

http://www.newseum.org/2016/06...

The dateline is June 6, a day before Leibovich's appearance. Setting the tone for that episode in hasbara, the speakers focused attention on the deaths of journalists at the hands of America's official enemies, with particular emphasis on the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the on-air assassination of two television reporters in Virginia by a former colleague. The latter crime was described as an act of terrorism, though no political motive has been produced. No mention was made of journalists who have been killed by US forces, abducted, imprisoned, and tortured by US intelligence agencies, or been targeted by governments viewed as friendly by the US. Israel/Palestine is the second most lethal location for journalists on earth. The Israeli regime of repression, enforced by military courts and an army of occupation, and abetted by a collaborationist Palestinian Authority, persecutes reporters, bloggers, facebook members, human rights investigators, and ordinary mortals struggling to record the daily truth of their experiences under apartheid.

None is this is worthy of notice at the Newseum.

Larger Question

Permalink JD replied on Sat, 06/11/2016 - 17:36

Thanks for this. To me, the whole episode begs the question: Is the Newseum(?) important?