Law refutes Israeli claims of staged Jenin 'burials'

LAW web site ^ | May 8th, 2002 | LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights & the Environment

[ThreeOfSeven]

The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights & the Environment

Law refutes Israeli claims of staged Jenin 'burials'
8 May 2002

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On Sunday, May 5, LAW organized a press conference in which it refutes Israeli claims that Palestinians had staged fake 'burials' in Jenin. The fake 'burials', the Israeli army spokesmen say, were an attempt to "prove" that there were many more Palestinians killed than actually were.

However, at the press conference, LAW showed and compared footage taken from an Israeli military drone on April 28, 2002, and footage taken by Palestinian film producer, Mohammad Bakri, who was shooting at the same site.

What the footage actually shows is a group of children playing "funeral" near the cemetry in Jenin. It is not uncommon in the occupied Palestinian territories to witness Palestinian children playing a game where they pretend they have been killed. It is part of a phenomenon raising fears among child experts and that a generation in the Palestinian territories has suffered serious psychological damage from Israeli violence directed against the Palestinian civilian population.

Moreover, the footage does not show a typical funeral, since there were no flags, which usually is seen at many Palestinian funerals, and the children were running, which is not common for an actual funeral.

Israeli and foreign media quoted the head of field intelligence for land forces in the Israeli army, Colonel Miri Eisen, who said that "the film speaks for itself," adding "they tried to fabricate evidence of funerals to inflate the number of their dead."

The media uncritically took up the Israeli spokesmen conclusions, without investigating what the footage actually shows.

It is not first time that Israeli army spokesmen fabricate distortions, including, blaming Palestinian parents for their childrens' death, and that Palestinian children are "just killed by accident".

FastCounter by bCentral

[Logophile]

I'll give the Israelis credit for "mendacious artfulness".

You still have not told us why we should believe the Palestinians instead of the Israelis.

[El Gato]

It is part of a phenomenon raising fears among child experts and that a generation in the Palestinian territories has suffered serious psychological damage from Israeli violence directed against the Palestinian civilian population

I'm sure such damage exists, but you don't suppose it could have anything to do with the adults dressing up the kiddies with toy suicide belts and encouraging them to become "martyrs" when they get a little older, like 7 or 8?

In general kids are pretty resiliant to "tough times" in the external world. But when their own families are the source of the problem, often they do become well, deranged wouldn't be too extreme a word, would it?

[Tauzero]

Bump!

[DonQ]

Even with that grainy videotape, I could see it was adults doing the fake funeral procession. If it was kids at play, how come most of the ran in terror when the "corpse" came to life.

[etcetera]

"I think the Israelis are engaged in a war of propaganda. "

I think that knife cuts both ways. The Arabs aren't innocent of that charge either.

[spqrzilla9]

Its too bad ( not ) that the American people are not fooled by the dishonesty of Palestinian terrorists and their accessories.

[ThreeOfSeven]

Do they report on violations of human rights committed by the PLO/PA?

LAW has issued reports critical of violations of human rights by the PA. See below:

Fair Trial Safeguards in International and Local Legislation

Detentions in PNA-controlled areas