Hamas's vicious AqsaTube bounces back, then falls again

An Israeli intelligence think-tank and the Hamas site seem to be playing a game of cat-and-mouse.

By AMIR MIZROCH
asqatube 224.88 (photo credit: www.asqatube.com/ www.youtube.com)
asqatube 224.88
(photo credit: www.asqatube.com/ www.youtube.com)
An Israeli intelligence think-tank and a Hamas video Web site seem to be playing a game of cat-and-mouse with each other. Last week the Intelligence Terrorism Information Center, a Ramat Hasharon-based research center closely associated with Israel's Shin Bet and Military Intelligence, released a report detailing the establishment by Hamas of AqsaTube, a video-sharing web platform closely modeled on the popular YouTube, but filled with videos praising suicide martyrdom and showing how to build bombs and carry out attacks. Following publication of the story in The Jerusalem Post, Google removed its AdSense program from the Hamas Web site, and one day later, AqsaTube's French Internet Service Provider OVH took the Islamist site off-line. But on Wednesday, AqsaTube was back up, bigger and more brazen than before. The Hamas site obtained a new service provider, a new logo, brand new videos and some new ads. The graphic design of the site underwent a number of changes. The original logo, whose color was almost identical with that of YouTube, was now yellow and gray and bore its name in Arabic and a picture of the Aksa Mosque. The site was still registered to Abu Nasser Skandar, from Dubai. On Thursday, the ITIC released its second report on AqsaTube, detailing its return and all its new features. In a carefully calculated move, the ITIC, in its report, highlighted a video on AqsaTube praising deceased Chechen terrorist Kuttab. That revelation, when brought to the attention of the new Russian service provider, may have caused some consternation at the Moscow-based 2X4, as Kuttab was one of the main figures behind the Chechen fighting against Russian soldiers. After he was killed by the Russians, he was glorified by Hamas to make the site more compatible with the global Islamic jihad, ITIC says. Some of the new videos were produced by the information bureau of the Izzadine Kassam Brigades, Hamas's military-terrorist wing. The new site has tried to represent itself as reflecting all the Palestinian terrorist organizations by adding videos associated with other Palestinian terror groups. Videos of global jihad organizations were also added. The new version of AqsaTube also had videos supporting al-Qaida and Chechen terrorism, and others preaching to European and American Christians that they should convert to Islam. Several hours after ITIC's report [to be found at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il] was released to the media, including to the Russian press, AqsaTube was again off-line. The Post has not been able to reach representatives of the Russian 2X4 firm, and cannot say with certainty that it was the service provider that removed AqsaTube, or whether the Hamas site is experiencing temporary technical difficulties. The 2X4's site "Contact Us" page is blank. Still, for the second time in one week, ITIC director Reuven Erlich was smiling. "They seem to be having technical problems, and who knows, we seem to be making their lives harder," he told the Post on Thursday. Based on this week's events, the people behind AqsaTube seem determined to keep the site alive, and Erlich is not ruling out the possibility that it could reappear in the very near future, hosted by a new service provider. "The fight has no end, but it makes Hamas's life harder, and that's the value of taking them on. For technical reasons, Hamas prefers to make use of Western Internet service providers, and that's where we focus our energies. [OVH, the French firm, pulled the plug on AqsaTube after media attention in this paper and the BBC]. "So sure, they could just go from one provider to another, and they could end up with a Malaysian provider for example, who won't feel the need to kick them off, but Hamas wants Western providers, and while they do, they are vulnerable," Erlich added. Furthermore, AqsaTube is not "a regular" Web site that can be ignored, Erlich said, pointing to the increasing use of on-line video to train terrorists. While the second removal of AqsaTube on Thursday signals perhaps a temporary tactical victory for the ITIC, Erlich believes that shedding light on the subject could help mobilize more international cooperation to fight sites that spread incitement and terrorism. "These kinds of sites are like pedophile sites, and the fight against them needs to be coordinated internationally, just like authorities do against pedophiles," Erlich said.