What Really Happened? The Myth Of Jenin Grows

The Globe and Mail ^ | 27 April 2002 | MARCUS GEE

[Vigilant1]

By MARCUS GEE
Globe & Mail
Saturday, April 27, 2002 - Page A17

Well before the dust had settled, the siege of Jenin had become a symbol of Israeli brutality throughout the Arab world and beyond.

Palestinian leaders said 500 of their people had been killed when Israeli troops invaded the West Bank refugee camp. There was talk of massacres and mass graves of the kind seen in Bosnia in the 1990s.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said Israeli soldiers had committed "despicable crimes" in Jenin. The correspondent for The Independent of London accused Israel of "a monstrous war crime." Amnesty International called for an immediate investigation into "the killings of hundreds of Palestinians."

What really happened in Jenin? Less, it would seem, than the original hysterics suggest. About 50 bodies have been found in the rubble. Israel says that perhaps 80 Palestinians were killed in all, and that most were armed fighters, not civilians.

Early reports that said the Israelis had levelled Jenin appear to have been exaggerated. Aerial photographs show that the devastated vistas described in news reports represent an area about 100 metres square, a small corner of the camp.

As for the infamous Israeli massacre, reporters who visited Jenin trying to document it came up empty-handed. The New York Times did dozens of interviews and found "no solid evidence of large-scale, deliberate killing of civilians." The Washington Post said "no evidence has surfaced to support allegations by Palestinian groups and aid organizations of large-scale massacres or executions by Israeli troops."

Did Palestinian civilians die in Jenin? Undoubtedly, and every lost life is a cause for sorrow. But who was really to blame for their deaths?

Israel did not go into Jenin for nothing. Palestinian extremists from hate-mongering groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad had turned it into a launching pad for terror attacks on Israel.

Before the Israeli invasion, the camp was a warren of bomb-making factories and terrorist hideouts.

More than 20 of the suicide bombers who have attacked Israel during the recent violence came from there.

One extremist alone, Thabet Mardawi of Islamic Jihad, is thought to have dispatched nine bombers from Jenin, killing a total of 20 Israelis and injuring 150. He will not do it again. Israeli soldiers arrested him in the camp and put him behind bars. They also intercepted 10 suicide bombers who had made farewell videotapes and were ready to strike.

If Israel were as ruthless as its critics say, it would have done to Jenin what the Russians did to the Chechen capital of Grozny. It would have used its superior firepower and pounded the place to rubble with warplanes, tanks and artillery.

Instead, Israel sent its soldiers into the narrow and dangerous streets to search house by house -- a tactic that reduced civilian casualties but put its own men in extreme danger. Twenty-three were killed, making the invasion one of the most costly military operations for Israel since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.

Only after those deaths did the army send in bulldozers to knock down the booby-trapped buildings where terrorists were hiding, and even then it made frequent announcements by loud-hailer that civilians would be allowed to leave, as some did.

That is considerably more than Hamas does when it dispatches killers to blow themselves up in Israeli buses, banquet halls and cafes?. Yet militant leaders have the gall to blame Israel for attacking non-combatants.

Perhaps it will come out that Israel did commit misdeeds in Jenin. If so, the perpetrators should be punished. But nothing so far supports the myth of atrocity and massacre that sprang like a wraith from the rubble of the camp.

If anyone is to blame for the destruction visited on Jenin, it is not the Israelis, who are fighting a just, defensive war against terrorism and hate.

It is the Palestinian militants who turned Jenin into a terror base and, when the Israelis came to get them, hid among civilians for protection.

[Vigilant1]

While this piece obviously has a pro-Israeli slant, the facts presented aren't contradicted by anything I could pick out from new footage. I've seen the media do the very same thing several times before, focus in on one small area of destruction and edit out the footage of untouched areas to create the false impression that the whole area was devestated like that and make the story more dramatic. After the LA riots and the Northridge earthquake, when I drove a taxi there for a year or so, people would come in from out of town and be amazed to see an untouched city. While the real destruction of the riots had been mostly concentrated along an 11-block stretch of Crenshaw Blvd. in one black neighborhood, the media coverage had created the impression the whole city was burning. Same with the earthquake. Only a half-dozen of the tens of thousands of buildings in LA were seriously damaged, but people expected to see a scene like Beruit, with piles of rubble and wandering refugees, again because of the media and their 'objective, factual' coverage. We are again a victim of a media fraud with the Jenin situation.

[Reagan Man]

The Myth Of Jenin Grows

Myth is right!

[My Identity]

For a dose of truth:

NY POST: THE MASSACRE THAT WASN'T http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/667529/posts Peres: There wasn't a house that wasn't booby-trapped	Steyn: It's time to snap out of Arab fantasy land http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/669063/posts Some great Oriana Fallaci quotes/links as well
WSJ: The Massacre That Wasn't - Part I http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/668601/posts Non-evidence and Pali fabrication of evidence	Steyn: The UN is running out of blind eyes to turn http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/669411/posts Interesting link on UN backpedaling
WSJ: The Massacre That Wasn't - Part II http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/669632/posts Palestinians drop their hyped-up "massacre" charges	Atrocities of the British Press http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/669206/posts Huge amounts of ink devoted to unverified Pali tales
WSJ: The Massacre That Wasn't - Part III http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/672189/posts Hey, Jimmy Carter has an opinion too!!	Reporters Back Down From Jenin "Massacre" Reports http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/668509/posts World press forced to face the truth: No Massacre
WSJ: The Massacre That Wasn't - Part IV http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/672160/posts Yet more non-evidence and Pali fabrication of evidence	The Phantom Massacre http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/672761/posts War Crimes committed in Jenin were by the Palestinians
WSJ: The Massacre That Wasn't - Part V http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/673145/posts The Pali's contradict themselves and blame it on Israel

[xm177e2]

More like media hysteria than "media fraud."

[My Identity]

An interesting juxtaposition of tales.

Message From An Israeli On The Front Lines http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/673234/posts "Entire families exploded themselves! It was horrific."	Palestinian Fighter admits - NO MASSACRE IN JENIN http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/671903/posts Up to 2,000 bombs and booby traps placed in the camp
Pediatrician notes terrorists' use of children in Jenin camp http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/670962/posts Doctor: IDF did everything possible to prevent civilian harm	Palestinians Used Booby-Trapped Wheelchair in Jenin http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/670810/posts NOTE: The wheelchair was occupied!!
Jenin War Diary of a Hasidic Soldier http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/672951/posts Israeli citizen-soldier describes what went on in Jenin	Palestinian fighter's version of the Jenin battle http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/672896/posts Pali Plan: Trap Israeli soldiers, then blow them up

[RWCon]

If it's a myth, let the investigation proceed. If not then shut the eff up.

[Twodees]

Good work with the links. This really gives me some help catching up on my reading. Thanks.

[recalcitrant]

If the rubble at jenin was only HALF as deep as the bullcarp coming from the palestinian buttlicking media, there would not be a person left alive anywhere in the west bank...

These third world ME dictatorial-tyrannies are really going over the top in their assault on the only democratic nation in their vicinity. Electra Complex on estrogen.

[tessalu]

Israel would have been justified if they had flattened out Jenin, and destroyed every terrorist supporter. News accounts say that 87% of the Palestinians support terrorism. We are at war with terrorists and all who support them, remember?

[ipatent]

As long as Israel keeps the UN inspectors and other observers out of Jenin, it's fair to assume that the truth is unflattering to Israel. Pretty much common sense, isn't it?

[lexington minuteman 1775]

nope. not when un votes are like 138 to 2 against Israel.All Israel is asking is some fairness in the make up of the panel. All reports i have seen show about 50 some deaths of which about 20 were civilians.

That is no massacre and the residents were warned by loudspeakers to leave the area and were given time. I figgure if the crossing lights are flashing at the RR grade crossing and you are stupid enough to try to beat the train you kinda deserve what happens to you if you fail in your quest. I feel the same for residents who refuse to evacuate a war zone.

[gg188]

Great work with the links. Thanks!!!

[My Identity]

As long as Israel keeps the UN inspectors and other observers out of Jenin, it's fair to assume that the truth is unflattering to Israel. Pretty much common sense, isn't it?

LOL!!
The UN, who "oversees" the Jenin camp, let the Palis build the bomb shops. The UN goof, Roed-Larsen, shot his mouth off, condemning Israel, before the facts were in. The Israelis are concerned about impartiality. Clearly, there is a conflict of interest in allowing the UN to judge what went on. Common sense, eh? LOL!

[Brytani]

Why should Israel trust the UN to complete a fair and impartial investigation of Jenin when the UN has never once condemned a single act of terrorist bombings in israel, nor has it once investigated a single attack that's taken place in the country.