As we wrote about on December 23rd in, Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II Takes Up YouTube, today we find a very different use for this video channel as governments are learning to leverage the Internet and control their own message. The Office of the Prime Minister (here in Israel), has now followed suit.
According to Haartez,
“The government recently posted three videos showing images from the terror attack at Jerusalem’s Mercaz Harav Yeshiva earlier this month in which eight students were killed.”
The paper continues, “TheMarker has learned that the Prime Minister’s Office was actually behind the uploads to the popular video site.
This is the first time that a government body has used the site in response to a terror attack.
The first film features graphic and bloody footage shot inside the yeshiva in the wake of the attack, as English subtitles document an emergency call made by a yeshiva student during the attack.”
Read the complete Haaretz article here. All three videos can be found through the link. Please note the footage contains images of a graphic nature.
In the past, the Israeli government has responded to terror attacks with official statements to the press, radio and television stations. A source connected to this current measure has indicated that Jerusalem will upload videos to YouTube in the event of any future terror attacks.
