| Author | Message | | sharkman | | Posted: Sat Jun 08, 2002 6:11 am Post subject: fake e-emails in the pro-palestinian activist community |
| forwarded:
i thought you might have a look at this article on the types of hacking and "fake activism" done on behalf of the palestinians. this is an elaboration of why i think you should be careful...
jp
-----------------
Forwarded Message:
Subj: Fake e-mails in the pro-Palestinian activist community
Date: 6/7/02 2:35:28 PM Pacific Daylight Time
__________________________
NEWS FROM THE
ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
http://electronicIntifada.net
__________________________
7 June 2002
ADVISORY: FAKE E-MAILS IN THE PRO-PALESTINIAN ACTIVIST COMMUNITY
In recent weeks, we have witnessed a huge increase in the number of
e-mails sent out seemingly from the e-mail addresses of
pro-Palestinian groups (including The Electronic Intifada) and from
individual activists that do not originate from their purported
sources.
Many of these e-mails have included computer viruses, racist
sentiments, and hate.
If you receive an e-mail that contains content that does not match
with what you are used to receiving from the group or person, chances
are it did not originate from them. To ascertain the actual source of
an e-mail, sign up for a free account at an online diagnosis and
reporting service such as spamcop.net.
THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA'S POSITION ON HACKING
Attacks against websites and e-mail bombing (the practice of sending
hundreds or thousands of messages to an account in an attempt to
overload it) have been regular features of the online
Israeli-Palestinian conflict for many years.
The Second Palestinian Intifada in 2000 was accompanied by a huge
increase in website defacements and 'denial of service' attacks
(which overload webservers so that visitors are not able to access
them). Attacks have been carried out by people supportive of both
sides in the conflict.
The Electronic Intifada's position on all forms of hacking has always
been that it is anti-democratic. Hacking is an attack on the
inalienable human right to freedom of opinion and expression.
"Pro-Palestinian" attacks against the Israeli Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (MFA) website during the first six months of the Intifada in
fact negatively affected the work we were doing at the time. Our
deconstruction of the MFA's "The Current Situation in Israel -
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions"
[http://electronicIntifada.net/forreference/israelidocs/mfafaq.html]
was held up for a week at one point because attacks prevented us from
accessing the site where an update of the FAQ had been posted.
A similar project relating to the Israeli Defence Forces [sic]
website was initially postponed and ultimately abandoned because
hackers managed to take the site off line during two critical weeks
where we had a window of work time available. The IDF site is now
located on an ultra secure server in the United States, hosted by
AT&T.
THE REALITY OF ISRAELI PROPAGANDA
The irony lost on hackers, of course, is that Israel's own propaganda
often proves ultimately to be self-defeating and deserves a wide
audience. There are many examples of this.
As reports filtered out of massive home demolitions during Israel's
attack on Jenin refugee camp, we wondered how it would be possible to
get an aerial photo of the camp. Amazingly, Israel itself published
images of the devastation
[http://www.israel.org/mfa/go.asp?MFAH0ll60] while arguing the
bizarre angle that 'we only demolished 100 square meters of refugee
homes', as if that was something for which Israel should be commended
instead of investigated by a war crimes commission.
As it later transpired, the destruction was far wider than than the
aerial photos show. Human Rights Watch's detailed map of the camp
shows many more additional structures that were "seriously damaged"
in areas of the camp other than what Israel declared was "the combat
zone" in its argument citing 'military necessity'
[http://hrw.org/press/2002/05/jeninmap0503.htm].
Israel further drew attention to itself on the 35th anniversary of
the occupation of the Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and West Bank
including Jerusalem - 5 June 2002 - when it awarded medals of honour
to twelve soldiers who participated in the war crimes of Jenin and
the destruction in the old city of Nablus. The Alternative
Information Center translated the words of one soldier from an
engineering platoon scheduled to receive the honour, Moshe Nissim,
who operated a bulldozer for 75 straight hours in Jenin:
"No one refused an order to take down a house. When they told me to
destroy a house I exploited that in order to destroy a few more
homes. On the loudspeaker [the Palestinian residents] were warned to
get out before I came in. But I didn't give a chance to anyone. I
didn't wait. I'm sure that people died inside of those houses. From
my perspective we left them a football field, they should play there.
The 100x100 was our present to the camp. Jenin will not return to be
what it was." (Yedioth Ahronot, Friday 31 May 2002).
The IDF's shrill and self-righteous claims that Palestinians were not
used as human shields in Jenin were similarly undermined by its own
soldiers in the press. In the end, the truth has a strange way of
taking care of itself.
The myths of "military necessity" and the Israeli Defence Forces
[sic] claim of a commitment to "universal moral values based on the
value and dignity of human life" are patently hollow to those of us
who read human rights reports and, in particular, those of us have
lived in the occupied territories and have seen the contempt for
Palestinian life and property that is the hallmark of the Israeli
occupation. No amount of spin or public relations investment or
hacking or e-mail bombing can silence either our testimonies or the
facts.
SUPPORT OUR WORK
As we embark on a massive reworking of The Electronic Intifada this
coming month, please consider financially supporting our work. In the
16 months since we launched the project we have achieved much but the
coming period is always more important.
Building an effective online resource requires resources. We have the
will but your support is the only way we can expand to meet the
challenges of the future.
If you can afford to support us today. Donations can be made by check
or credit card. More information is available at
http://electronicIntifada.net/supporttheproject.html
Nigel Parry
for EI
7 June 2002
--
ABOUT US: This e-mail was sent by THE ELECTRONIC INTIFADA, an
educational non-profit project focused on media coverage of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, found at http://electronicIntifada.net.
More information about our work can be found at
http://electronicIntifada.net/about/.
MAILING LIST INSTRUCTIONS: Your e-mail address is considered private
and will not be passed to any third party by either me or Yahoo
Groups who hosts my mailing list. To JOIN my mailing list, which
will provide you with a high quality, low-volume selection of news
and analysis about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, please send a
blank e-mail to aliabunimah-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
To LEAVE the list, send a blank e-mail to
aliabunimah-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com. More information about the
list, including its archive, is available at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aliabunimah/
This is NOT a discussion list!
You can also sign up for the list and get much, much more information at my website http://www.abunimah.org
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ | |  | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
