After Israel released a tape purportedly showing passengers on the Mavi Marmara making inflammatory comments, many questioned the authenticity of the tapes and charged that they had been edited. Leaders on the ship said that they never radioed the IDF to tell them “Go back to Auschwitz” and that they are “helping Arabs go against the U.S., don’t forget 9/11.” Now, the IDF has issued an unedited tape and admitted that the earlier version was edited. It also admits that it is not clear that these comments came from the Mavi Marmara.
Here is part of the original tape released by the IDF that was widely distributed over blogs and news channels:
The IDF insists that it was merely trying to edit out long periods of silence, but now admits that due to “an open channel, the specific ship or ships in the Freedom Flotilla responding to the Israeli Navy could not be identified.”
Activists have objected that the IDF seized their own recording equipment that would have shown such editing as well as how they responded from the Mavi Marmara.