גוגל חסמה לגולשים מישראל את הפוסט על ברוך בן עזרי – קצין מג”ב שהרג את סלומון טקה
UPDATE: Both Calcalist and 7th Eye reported this story for Israeli readers. Thanks to Eyal Clyne who translated the two posts about this incident into Hebrew and posted them in his blog.
I’ve just received an official notice from Google that an Israeli court has filed an order demanding that it remove any reference to my recent post, which identified Baruch Ben Ezri as the police commander who killed Solomon Takah in cold blood.
Unfortunately, this has happened to me before. Sometimes, an individual malefactor doesn’t like his misdeeds exposed to an Israeli audience. Sometimes, the state itself wants to cover its behind and conceal the identity of its own evildoers, as in this case.
The order only affects those who use Google.co.il as their search engine. If you use any other Google search engine URL the post should be accessible. If you are Israeli and want to see the post, use one of these Google URLs and not the Israeli Hebrew language search engine. The post has not been censored from other search engines. Though clearly, Google has the lion’s share of search traffic.
Note that the court order also demands that Google not share it with me. This, in effect, protects the official censors ie. the state prosecutor who filed the demand with the court and the judge who rubber stamped it.
Finally, the most disturbing aspect of this is that while Israel has slapped a gag order on reporting Ben Ezri’s identity and no Israeli media may report it, this does not extend outside Israel. Anyone else may report this information as I have. And that’s how Israelis learn of it. But in this case, Google is permitting Israel to extend its own censorious practices outside of its own legal jurisdiction. Google has become a party to Israeli transnational censorship.
So when people complain about social media or search engines being complicit in censorship in China or other countries, remember it’s happening in a country many people consider a western-style democracy (though it isn’t).
As a form of resistance, especially if you are Israeli, please circulate this post and the censored one as widely as you can within Israel and abroad. We must not let the censors win.
Finally, if you support my efforts against Israeli censorship and in favor of press freedom and transparency there, please donate via Paypal or Network for Good (see sidebar links or Donate button in top navigation bar).
“We must not let the censors win”.
Richard. Why is it that commenters who criticize you here on Tikkun Olam, have a ‘shelf life’ of about two weeks?
Within two weeks, you’ve either banned your critics, or moderated them into oblivion.
@ P Spot: Nonsense, there are commenters opposed to my views who’ve been commenting here for years. In fact, of the 95,000 comments published here at least 20-25% oppose my views. So sorry, you lose this time I’m afraid.
That’s why there are comment rules. If you follow them, you’ll last. Don’t and you won’t.
You do understand that his name was censored to protect his family, right? I’m not saying that the shooter is free of guilt, I am saying that his family is, and this censorship was meant to keep them away from the public eye and not exposed to threats.
@ Daniel:
No, I understand no such thing. What I do understand is that Border Police are murderous scum who beat up, maim and murder African refugees, Palestinians, Ethiopians–anyone they can get their hands on who isn’t a red-blooded Israeli Jew. I understand that the police would like to create a narrative that Ben Ezri is in fear of his life and that Ethiopian terrorists are hunting him down and he must be hidden to protect his life. All a bunch of bullshit. There is no threat. If there is I dare you or the Border Police to produce a single credible threat.
Richard, your website and its posts should be available through duckduckgo.com. It’s an up and coming search engine. I’d encourage you and your readers to use that and not submit to the Googleocracy.
@Mark: yes I agree. It’s an excellent anonymous search engine. I believe all other search engines (Bing, Yahoo, etc) should provide direct access to the post as well.
I’ve Written a post on the case of the blocked post by Google. It’s a ridiculous request, since the info is out by Whatsapp and other messaging services.
https://freedomofsearch.blogspot.com/2019/07/blog-post.html
@Uri: thanks. I think the issue for the Israeli censors is they don’t mind individual Israelis posting the info to each other on WhatsApp. But they don’t want it accessible in a broad public manner on Google.
Thank you for pushing this, Richard. I’ve tweeted it in English and בעברית.
“As a form of resistance…” – you know how pathetic this sounds?
– Are you hiding in Frozen forests in Yugoslavia?
– Are you risking your life publishing on the internet from half a world away?
You have published before information about a judge which could reveal the name of the minor involved in that case. For you, any Israeli gag order is illegal. Have you ever respected any of them?
Palestinian area has their “own” Google (www.google.ps). It would be interesting to know if Google follows the same rules, procedures and standards with google.co.il and google.ps. If a occupied Palestinian’s name after an violent event appears in the national Google search engine data, can Palestinian legal system create equal months long gag orders and court orders to block the information and discussion? Israelis do not hesitate to inform the world of the Palestinians name even in very unclear cases where more these “hilarious” IDF and Israeli police inspections were needed and have started.
Well on the other hand the more Israel and the pro-Israeli Jewish communities try and succeed in manipulating the information in Google, Twitter, Facebook etc using those constant complains, antisemitism etc claims the faster the American internet giants loose their credibility and business and will be replaced with new less manipulated systems not located inTrumpistan. Also now when the Israeli border policy and now US policy in visa applications is to demand access to persons social media and email accounts when visiting the country is not “good for the business”, when the larger audience notice what this opinion policing actually means. We in Europe also need equal “filter methods”, let’s check in customs every entering Israeli’s opinions in social media, emails and his/hers military service history. A slightest sign of change of potential war crimes, racism and religious radicalism causes an instant return ticket home in the next El Al plane. This kind of checks can’t be wrong because Israelis themselves make such “checks” – or is demanding such in this case antisemitism and limiting free speech. Hmmm …
“No, I understand no such thing” – in this case Richard, maybe you should have tried to understand.
Your arrogance of “I know everything about what what everyone else is saying, or meant to say, or will say down the slope” is mindblowing. You try very little to understand what those people tried to say and in what context. All of this while no one is allowed to characterize your own opinion and words. But that is exactly what you do in every single article of your blog.
I’m sure you are truly interested in improving the world. I just really don’t think you got the recipe.
@ Uriel Gold:
That’s actually not true. I spend far more time reading both your comments and those who agree with you here. Plus, I read a great deal about these same views in the media research I do. I know quite well your arguments. I just don’t agree with them. That bothers you I know. But so be it.
Read the comment rules again: my editorial decisions are not up for discussion or debate. If you don’t like my rules make your own (somewhere else).
You are doing a brave job.
But have you ever broken an Israeli gag order and later regretted it because you realized you haven’t had full information?
@ Judy Green: I have been deliberately fed false information and regretted trusting the Israeli source who offered it. But I can’t recall violating military censorship or a gag order and regretting it for any reason. Also, I do not report every story I’m offered. There are times, for various reasons, I don’t publish a story that may be under gag.