Washington, DC (TFC) – Openly, Canary Mission is set up to appear as an Anti-BDS, Anti-Palestinian website, but when you look closer the site can only be intended to be used by Pro-Palestinian activists as a networking tool. While there are a few pages that play on the reader’s belief the site is pro-Israeli, the vast majority of the site is set up like a Pro-Palestinian activist’s phonebook. It contains lists of prominent Anti-Occupation activists complete with links to their social media profiles. The only possible legitimate use of this information is networking to strengthen the Anti-Occupation community.
On this site, activists can find the contact information for like-minded people spread all over the world. There’s even a form under the heading “submissions”, where you can request to have prominent activists listed.
The site screens potential entries to make sure they are active within the community before they are placed in the directory. It goes to the trouble of providing details about their past activities, which lets other activists determine if they are the right fit for whatever campaign they are working on.
With the level of background information provided, it’s clear the site is only masquerading as an anti-BDS site. It’s not like a site would furnish this information to encourage attacks on the people listed. That would open the operators up to all kinds of legal action. Unless, of course, the operators were backed by some foreign government.
No democratic government would be behind an attempt to use the implied threat of violence to silence free speech, right? Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, right? They’re the good guys. They wouldn’t do that. So we can only assume this site was put together to help aid the Anti-Occupation community.
To test out the theory, it should be noted that this journalist has made contact with no less than three of the individuals listed and it has helped generate leads for at least two articles.
Here’s a link to the activists’ directory. You can link up with hundreds of Anti-Occupation activists there. Many activists have expressed their thanks to the operators of Canary Mission for putting so much effort into providing a useful tool to the community.
Other activists believe the site is exactly what it claims to be, but most find it hard to believe that any group of people would be so dumb as to believe that helping activists connect would help deter a movement that thrives on new connections.
