Gaza flotilla video mashup: Internet Killed Israeli PR.

Parody of Video Killed the Radio Star (Buggles) by Minor Demographic Threat.

Please share extensively!
Interview with Minor Demographic Threat below.

Lyrics:

You had them on your wireless saying, 'Death to Jews'
You sliced & diced & circumcised & claimed Fair Use
600 Turks were singing 'Girl U Know It's True'

YouTube & Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, bit.ly
You spammed them all & then you even posted 3
Casual Encounters on CraigsList NYC

IDF spokesmen
Who freakin' trained them?

Bloggers came & broke your heart

Now you tweet your new surveillance video
Cyborg Al-Qaida from the future snorting blow
set to the theme music from Hawaii Five-O

He had a knife and
Wait a second: that's Barbra Streisand

You couldn't find my SD card
You're in a bind says Michael Sfard

The Shin Bet mined my SD card
& played it back on NPR
Born & raised in Arkansas
I brought 6 nukes for the Hamas

We are the Mavi Marmara
You are the sloppy hasbara

Useful links: http://www.bdsmovement.net & http://www.palestinefreedom.org for BDS & Palestine activism resources & news, http://www.artistsagainstapartheid.org to learn more about creative resistance to Israeli Apartheid.

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Internet Killed Israeli PR: An interview with Minor Demographic Threat
 

by Adam Horowitz

AH: Why did you make this video?

MDT: Our primary intention was simply to provide some comic relief for a community (Palestine solidarity activists) that is still grieving for the nine innocent people who were murdered by the Israeli military aboard the Mavi Marmara. And if we could embarrass some of the folks responsible for the incredibly sloppy PR work we've seen from Israel in connection with the attack, all the better. They should be embarrassed. They're not only apologists for a brutal act by a brutal regime: they're also really bad at their job.

Was there any particular significance to your choice of "Video Killed the Radio Star" as opposed to any other song you could have parodied?

We chose to base the piece on "Video Killed the Radio Star" because, much like the original, this piece is about the inability of a communicator to adapt to a new medium. I think that's exactly what we're seeing with the Israeli PR apparatus as it struggles to remain effective in an increasingly democratized media landscape. Israel understands the threat of a medium that bypasses intermediaries and allows ordinary people to disseminate content to a mass audience. Journalists aboard the Mavi Marmara have said that the top priority for soldiers boarding the ship appeared to be the seizure of all the photographic equipment they could find, thus allowing their government to control the media narrative. The only way Israel could exert any measure of control was by cutting off the flow of information. And despite their best efforts, information still got out, some of it during the attack itself. As the web continues its evolution into a real-time medium, this strategy will become increasingly unsustainable.

You also told Ma'an News that the parody was a response to the well-known "We Con the World" video, but it's only racked up a fraction of the views received by that clip. How do you explain that?

It's a very particular type of person who's going to laugh at Frank Luntz playing air guitar. Horrifically racist depictions of Arabs, on the other hand, have a much broader appeal. If our intention had been to reach a mass audience, we would have sacrificed quality for the sake of rushing the piece out as quickly as possible, and dispensed with the litany of inside jokes. Considering that this video was released months after the incident, clearly targeted a niche audience, was produced on a budget of zero, and didn't have the benefit of government officials actively promoting it, I think we've done pretty well. Besides, Latma's effort had set a certain benchmark with wordplay, acting, costume and set design and so on, so we felt obliged to take all the time that was necessary to match that standard. And then we just spent the next two and a half months fine-tuning it.

How do you feel about the media response?

Overall, we've been very pleased. Naturally, much of the coverage has focused on the blocking, and some articles have attached ascribed undue significance to specific images in the video. The one-second image of Hitler was used to illustrate the absurdity of the IDF's clearly-fabricated "go back to Auschwitz" audio, which effectively accused flotilla participants of being closet Nazis. We needed a recognizable anti-Semite. Unfortunately, Mel Gibson's people didn't get back to us in time, and the evangelical Christian right were busy attending AIPAC functions. I think the intention is quite clear in context, but just to provide further clarification, we posted a comment on the video, in which made our position quite explicit. We promptly began receiving hate mail from deeply-offended Nazis, and we're quite happy to have offended them.

On your YouTube page, you refer to yourselves as "anarcho-Yiddishists". What does that mean, exactly?

Well, first of, we think it's a great term, so we wanted to do our part to multiply the number of times it shows up in the Google index by a few hundred. Most of those involved in the production were Jewish, and we draw a tremendous amount of inspiration from satirists like Allan Sherman, Mickey Katz, and Tom Lehrer—all of whom were also Jews. And Tom Lehrer, as far as I know, is still a Jew. Humor as a tool for ridiculing the oppressor is nothing new, but Jews living under Tsarist rule developed it into a true art. And the language in which they assailed the autocracy, from the subtle and sly to the audaciously acerbic, was Yiddish.

We're anarchists in that we reject all forms of oppression, and we're Yiddishists in the way we wield satire as a weapon. Our activism, and our activism on this issue in particular, is a primary means by which we engage with our Jewishness. It's not just the Yiddish language that's important to preserve; it's the whole set of aesthetics which breathe life into it. Zionism has helped to place both of those things into dire jeopardy, and that's one more reason why we oppose it.

So what's next for Minor Demographic Threat?

Thanks to our powerful Saudi backers, we're planning to establish a network of satirist training camps throughout northern New Jersey. We're also in an ongoing process of seeking out new collaborators—just not the kind in Ramallah. Finally we're working on some new videos, including a short piece starring Eden Abergil which should be out in the next few days. Our future's so bright, we need desaturation filters.

Any parting words?

We'd like to thank the internet, and some of the people on it, especially people who work for the IDF and have names beginning with "@" signs. They were an indispensable source of material. We also want to thank people for sharing our video far and wide, and even translating it into other languages. And we hope that our work will help to inspire other, similar efforts: we think it's entirely possible that a sufficiently funny internet video, combined with systematic global campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions, can actually end Israeli apartheid.

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