Jenin - The Propaganda War Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - Dave Muller Special Update: Jenin - The Propaganda War Contents: [1] Jenin - The Propaganda War [2] Avnery on Jenin: Something Stinks [3] Preliminary findings of Amnesty International delegates' visit to Jenin [4] European Parliament Members Press Conference +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ [1] JENIN - THE PROPAGANDA WAR Prof. Tanya Reinhart ( http://www.tau.ac.il/~reinhart ) Yediot Aharonot, April 21, 2002. Appendix and some quotes added. In Israel, Jenin is perceived mainly as a public relations problem (called in Hebrew 'hasbara' -explaining). It appears even that the army and the government believe that Israel is winning the propaganda battle. After all, all relevant principles of this battle have been strictly adhered to: The first principle: No pictures or information in real time! The IDF (Israeli army) managed to fully prevent the media from entering Jenin during the events. Thus, all we were left with were 'conflicting reports' - a stream of horrible accounts coming from Palestinian witnesses who escaped the refugee camp - and the IDF's utter denial. In the meanwhile, the work of destruction could continue undisturbed for ten days. On the seventh day of Israel's 'operation' in Jenin, (April 9), it was reported in the Israeli media that the army was nevertheless worried. "Officers of the IDF expressed their shock" about what happened in Jenin: "When the world will see the pictures of what we have done there, it will cause us enormous damage." (Ha'aretz Hebrew edition, Amos Har'el and Amira Hass, April 9, 2002). Peres even slipped and mentioned the taboo word "massacre" (which he immediately denied of course). Israel's counter attack was immediately launched. "The Foreign Ministry is mobilizing forces to counter Palestinian allegations that IDF forces conducted 'a massacre' in the Jenin refugee camp" (Ha'aretz, April 10, 2002). A special PR center of the IDF and the Foreign Ministry was formed in Jerusalem, and its representative, Gideon Meir, passed to the press the major principles of the Israeli version: a. "What happened in Jenin was a fierce battle and not a massacre." ("The main diplomatic ammunition" in the campaign's "arsenal is that 22 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the fighting"). b. "The battle was fierce because the IDF sought to minimize civilian suffering." c. The PR campaign should direct attention to the Israeli casualties in terror attacks. (Ha'aretz Hebrew edition, Anat Cigelman and Aluf Ben, April 9, 2002.) The second principle of the propaganda battle: If you have full control over the local media, you can pass anything. These messages have been repeated since, again and again, not only by all politicians and Israeli spokesmen, but also by almost every reporter, weaved into the news reports, and by the analysts and columnists, disguised as spontaneous acts of expressing an educated opinion. Here is Ha'aretz editorial version of the propaganda line: "There is evidence of intense combat, but, with appropriate caution, it can already be said what did not happen in the Jenin refugee camp. There was no massacre. No order from above was given, nor was a local initiative executed, to deliberately and systematically kill unarmed people" (Ha'aretz, April 19, 2002, editorial column). This line is pretty sophisticated. The word 'massacre' may bring to mind soldiers moving from house to house, shooting everyone they find -men, women and children (as in Sabra and Shatila). Such massacre clearly did not take place in Jenin. No Palestinian source ever described the facts this way (see (1) in the appendix). Still, Ha'aretz and everyone else insist on falsifying just this specific interpretation of the word. What did clearly happen in Jenin is that the army simply ignored the fact that there were an unknown number of individuals and families in the areas which were bombarded day and night by missiles from 'Cobra' helicopters, or even in some of the houses erased by bulldozers to pave ways for the tanks. No one came to shoot them individually; they were just buried under their bombarded or bulldozed homes. Others died of their wounds in the alleys, or cried for days under the ruins, until their voices faded away. Bit by bit, testimonies of reserve soldiers are filtering through the back pages of the Israeli media: "After the first moments of the fighting, when a commander was killed... the instructions were clear: shoot every window, sew every house - whether someone shoots from there or not." To the question whether he saw civilians get hurt, the reservist answered: "Personally - not. But the point is that they were inside the houses. The last days, the majority of those who came out of the houses were old people, women and children, who were there the whole time and absorbed our fire. These people were not given any chance to leave the camp, and we are talking about many people" (Ofer Shelah, Yediot Aharonot's weekend supplement, April 19, 2002). For many, such descriptions are sufficient to make them shiver, and they don't really care whether the right word for this is 'massacre'. For the success of the PR campaign, it is therefore necessary to stress that we are not talking here about shelling and killing civilians, but about a fierce battle, in which civilians may also get occasionally killed. According to the Israeli army, in the Jenin refugee camp, where 15,000 residents are crowded densely, there were a few dozen wanted terrorists, and several hundred armed men. What is considered appropriate for such battle conditions? The PR center clarifies this in its second principle above: It was possible to erase the whole camp, with its residents, with a few precise hits of F-16 bomber jets, and, thus, eliminate all the terrorists with no casualties to the Israeli army. But the army took an enormous risk of actual fighting, in order to save Palestinian life. If this is the range of options, The Israeli army proved in Jenin that it is a truly humane army. It may take a while before we (Israelis) start to digest what we did in Jenin. I don't have the words yet to speak about my shame, my horrible pain for the Palestinian people. Therefore I speak about what we did to ourselves. A dear friend of mine was murdered three days ago in a trip in Sinai - a painter and computer expert, in the draft resistance circle. By informal reports, his murderer was an Egyptian who sought revenge for the murder of the Palestinians. He could not distinguish between my friend and the nice reserve fellows from Jenin that we saw and heard so much about the last few days. In fact, they do look similar, and many of these guys are also in computer business. Itai Angel, the young journalist who interviewed reservists on channel 2 TV news last Friday night, has possibly managed to convince many in our little bubble that such nice guys, by their very nature, cannot possibly, commit a massacre. Therefore, there was no massacre - there was a fierce battle and we are OK. But outside our bubble, nobody watches Itai Angel. They watch the ruins of Jenin. We are turning the whole Muslim world against us. APPENDIX: THE BATTLE OVER THE BODIES (1) Reports on individual, purposeful, shooting of unarmed civilians by soldiers (executions) regarded only shooting of men. Here is one such testimony, reported in greater detail by the British 'Independent': "Fathi Shalabi watched his son die. The two men were standing side by side with their hands up when Israeli soldiers opened fire on them. Mr Shalabi's son, Wadh, and another man who was with them died instantly, but the 63-year-old Mr Shalabi survived. He lay on the ground pretending to be dead for more than an hour while his son's blood gathered around him... Mr Shalabi described what took place. Soldiers ordered his family and Mr Al-Sadi down a narrow alley. 'In cover behind the corner were four soldiers. The two young men with me were carrying baby children, and the soldiers did not shoot at them.' Wadh Shalabi was carrying his four-month-old son, Mahmoud. The soldiers ordered the men to hand the children over to their mothers and told the women and children to go into the next-door house. Then they ordered the men to raise their shirts and show they were not wearing suicide belts. 'The soldiers were about three metres away. I heard the names of two of them; they were Gaby and David.' He said that the soldier called Gaby appeared to be in command. 'They saw Abdul Karim had a plaster on his back. Suddenly Gaby shouted 'Kill them!'." (The Independent, Justin Huggler and Phil Reeves April 21, 2002). These two dead men were civilians. However, even shooting surrendering soldiers is a war crime. The Hague Tribunal found Bosnian Serb General Radislav Krstic guilty of Genocide for his role in the killing of Muslim soldiers and males in Srebrenica in 1995. Muslim women and children were not killed, but expelled from the town. In the mass graves in Kosovo as well, mostly male bodies were found. (2) Though Jenin was sealed to the press, pictures of the battlefield, shot with local amateur video cameras, were broadcasted, mainly on Arab TV. They showed alleys lined up with male bodies (many armed). This is to be expected, given that there was indeed a serious battle in Jenin. In early reports of the Israeli army, the number of these bodies was estimated as 200. The Palestinian figures were much higher. As the time was reaching to open the camp to the press, the army expressed, as we saw, serious concerns regarding the "PR" effects of the scenes on the ground. It is appropriate to wonder what happened with these bodies. On Friday, April 12, it was reported that "the IDF intends to bury today Palestinians killed in the West Bank camp. Around 200 Palestinians are believed to have been killed in clashes with Israeli soldiers since the start of the operation last week... Military sources said until now the IDF has not buried any of the bodies. The sources said that two infantry companies, along with members of the military rabbinate, will enter the camp today to collect the bodies. Those who can be identified as civilians will be moved to a hospital in Jenin, and then on to burial, while those identified as terrorists will be buried at a special cemetery in the Jordan Valley. One Israeli source said that the decision to bury the bodies was taken to prevent the Palestinians from using the bodies for propaganda purposes...The Palestinian Authority has expressed concerns that Israel is trying to hide the large number of dead, since it has blocked Palestinian medical teams from evacuating the dead and wounded from the camp during the past week. " (Ha'aretz, April 12, Anat Cigelman, Amos Harel and Amira Hass). Apparently, no one in Israel was particularly concerned then about issues of international law, mass graves, etc. So ample further information was provided on TV news the evening before about the preparations: Special refrigerating trucks were shown waiting to transfer the bodies to "terrorist cemeteries" in the Jordan valley. However, a petition to the high court interfered. "The High Court of Justice issued an interim order Friday blocking the IDF from moving out the bodies of dead Palestinians from the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. A panel of three justices will hold a full discussion on the matter [Sunday] morning, following a petition by Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment. MKs Mohammed Barakeh (Hadash) and MK Ahmed Tibi (Ta'al-Arab Movement for Renewal) also filed similar petitions...The petitioners claim the army's decision violates international law as the Jordan Valley cemetery will, they claim, be basically a mass grave, thus damaging the honor of the dead" (Ha'aretz, April 14, 2002, Amos Harel, Gideon Alon and Jalal Bana). "MK Avigdor Lieberman (National Union-Yisrael Beiteinu) has called for Justice Barak to be removed from his post following the IDF decision. 'Barak's decision is a vulgar and clear interference by the judiciary in the decision of the executive..'" (there). His worry may have been premature. When the full discussion was held on Sunday (April 14), the high court turned down the petitions, while recommending that "the army make use of the services of the Red Crescent and local officials in Jenin to help locate and identify bodies, subject to the considerations of the military commanders." (Ha'aretz Hebrew edition, April 15 Moshe Reinfeld and Anat Zigelman). It was reported that following the temporary Supreme Court decision of Friday, the IDF stopped "clearing the bodies" from the camp, waiting for the final decision on Sunday. However, on Sunday, the media was already allowed to the camp, and they found a scene of mass destruction, but with roads clean of bodies: That's how Amos Har'el described it in Ha'aretz: "The visit, which the army allowed after a critical three-day delay, did not provide an unequivocal answer to the question that everyone continues to fight over - the Israeli leaders and their spokesmen, and the Palestinians - how many Palestinians died during the fighting? We talked with soldiers in Jenin, officers and rank-and-file troopers, and all vehemently denied the accusations of a massacre of civilians. The Palestinian residents who escaped gave reporters a completely different version. But on the ground, yesterday, only one Palestinian body was to be found in the open, in an area where most of the fighting took place" (Ha'aretz, April 15, 2002). Harel asks: "So what happened to the rest of the bodies? The Palestinians say there were 500 killed. IDF Spokesman Brigadier General Ron Kitri said on Friday there were some 200, but then corrected himself with a much lower figure." The formal IDF answer was given that same day: "Israel Defense Forces officers now estimate that dozens - not hundreds - of Palestinians were killed as a result of the army's activities in the Jenin refugee camp. As of last night, 46 Palestinian corpses have been located in the camp. Updated estimates concerning the total number of Palestinian fatalities in the camp now range between 70 and a little over 100. Officials believe that some of the corpses are still buried under the rubble of houses demolished by IDF bulldozers" (Ha'aretz, April 5). Not too many further questions were asked In Israel regarding how the IDF's initial estimate of 200 dead in battle turned out so over exaggerated. Here is how the Ha'aretz editorial of April 19 (cited above) sums the matter up: "In Israel, too, suspicions were raised that there was truth to the Palestinian claims. Many feared that Jenin would be added to the black list of massacres that have shocked the world. The IDF contributed to those fears when it issued a preliminary estimate of hundreds of dead in the camp (it turned out that several score were killed, with the exact number still unknown)". +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ [2] Something Stinks Uri Avnery, 20.4.02 There is full agreement between all those who were in the Jenin refugee camp on only one thing. A week after the end of the fighting, foreign journalists and IDF soldiers, UN representatives and hired hacks in the Israeli media, members of the welfare organizations and government propagandists all report that a terrible stench of decomposing bodies lingers everywhere. Apart from that there is no agreement on anything. The Palestinians speak about a massacre amounting to a second Sabra and Shatila. The IDF speak about hard fighting, in which "the most humane army in the world" did not intentionally hurt even one single civilian. The Palestinians speak about hundreds of dead, the Minister of Defense asserts categorically that exactly 43 were killed. So what is the truth? The simple answer is: nobody knows. Nobody can possibly know. The truth lies buried under the debris, and it smells atrociously. But some facts are uncontestable. They are sufficient for drawing conclusions. First: During two weeks of fighting, the IDF did not allow any journalist, Israeli or foreign, into the camp. Even after the fighting had died down, no journalist was let in. The pretext was that the life of the journalists would be endangered. But they did not ask the army to save them. They were quite ready to risk their lives, as journalists and photographers do in every war. Simple common sense would hold that if one forcibly denies access to journalists, one has something to hide. Second: During the fighting and afterwards, ambulances and rescue teams were not allowed to get close. Those that tried to approach were shot at. The result was that the wounded bled to death in the streets, even if they had relatively light injuries. This is a war crime, a "manifestly illegal order", over which "the black flag of illegality" flies. Under Israeli law, and even more so under international law and conventions to which Israel is a party, soldiers are forbidden to obey such an order. It makes no difference whether civilians or "armed men", one person or a hundred, died in these circumstances. As a method of warfare it is inhuman. Some journalists justified this method in advance when they alleged that they had seen "with their own eyes" Palestinian ambulances carrying arms. Even if there was such an incident, it would not justify the use of such methods in any circumstances. (Until now, only one instance has been proven: this week Israeli journalists reported proudly that undercover soldiers used an ambulance in order to approach a house in which a "wanted person" was hiding). Third: Even after the end of the fighting, and until now, heavy equipment and rescue teams have not been allowed in to remove the debris and corpses, or, perhaps, save people still alive under the ruins. The pretext was again that the corpses could be mined. So what? If foreign and local teams want to risk their lives for this noble purpose, why should the army prevent them from doing so? Fourth: During all the days of fighting, no one was allowed to bring in medications, water and food. I myself took part in a mass march of Israeli peace activists who tried, after the fighting was over, to accompany a convoy of trucks carrying such supplies to the camp. The trucks were allowed, so it seemed, to pass the road-block which stopped us - but it later became apparent that the supplies were unloaded in an army camp and only four could reach their destination. What does all this indicate? An objective person could only draw the conclusion that the army wanted to prevent the entrance of eye-witnesses into the camp at any price. The army knew that this would give rise to rumors about a terrible massacre, but preferred this to the disclosure of the truth. If one takes such extreme measures to hide something, one cannot complain about the rumors. What is the height of cynicism? When one blocks free access to a place, and then argues that no one has the right to say what happened there, because he has not seen it with his own eyes. The most damning evidence about what happened is the fact that immediately after the end of the fighting, top government and army officials started to discuss ways of preventing a shock reaction in Israel and abroad once the facts became known. This was no secret discussion, it was held in public, in the media talk shows. All of us heard. The decisions made were extremely effective in Israel, and extremely ineffective abroad. I happened to be in England when the news finally broke. They filled the first page of every important British newspaper. The front-page headline in the Times was "Inside the Camp of Death". Underneath was a giant photo and a report by a star war correspondent, who wrote that in all the wars she had covered, such as Bosnia, Kosovo, Chechnya and others, she had never seen such a terrible sight as this. In almost all European countries the reaction was the same. In Israel, however, the government propaganda machine, in which all the media are now voluntarily integrated, did everything possible to prepare the public in advance. It was said beforehand that the Palestinians were about to spread a horrible lie, that they were ready to heap dead bodies (from where?) in the streets. It got almost to the point of saying that the Palestinians had blown up their houses over their families in order to create a blood libel. The IDF did "clean" part of the camp, removing the bodies and ordering the ruins somewhat, and that is where compliant journalists and innocent foreign visitors were brought. There they met humane officers who assured them that there had not been any massacre. After all, only a tiny part of the camp had been destroyed, so-and-so many yards by so-and-so many yards, nothing really. It all reminds one of the methods of certain regimes. The result is that again a huge gap was created between Israelis and the rest of the world. Around the world, many were horrified that Jews, of all people, were capable of doing such things. Jews were again confirmed in their belief that all Goyim are anti- Semites. I hope that there will be a serious international inquiry, and that the truth - whatever it may be - will emerge. But if even a part of the rumored atrocity is confirmed, a question will be asked: What was the intention? Why did the civilian and military leadership decide to deal with the Jenin camp like this? The only answer I can come up with is: in Jenin the Palestinians decided to stand up and fight. The rape of Jenin was intended to send a message to the Palestinians: This will be the lot of everyone who resists the IDF. Also, it could cause a Deir Yassin- style mass flight, Only a fool would believe that this will end the resistance to the occupation. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ [3] Preliminary findings of Amnesty International delegates' visit to Jenin AI Index: MDE 15/058/2002 Publish date: 22/04/2002 On their return from a research mission to Israel and the Occupied Territories, Amnesty International delegates presented today their preliminary findings during a press conference at the Foreign Press Association. Delegates interviewed eye-witnesses and met government representatives, including from the Israeli Defence Forces. They visited Rumaneh village, Jenin city, Jenin City Hospital and Jenin Refugee Camp. "The evidence compiled indicates that serious breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed, including war crimes, but only an independent international commission of inquiry can establish the full facts and the scale of these violations," said Javier Zzqiga, Director of Regional Strategy of the organization's International Secretariat. The delegation received credible evidence of such serious violations including: * Failure to give civilians warning or time to evacuate Jenin refugee camp before Apache helicopters launched their first attacks. * Failure by the Israeli Defence Forces to protect the people of the refugee camp, who are "protected people" under the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilians Persons in Time of War. * Allegations of extrajudicial executions * Failure, for 13 days, to allow humanitarian assistance to the people in the camp who were trapped in the rubble of demolished houses or running out of food and water. * Denial of medical assistance to the wounded in the refugee camp and deliberate targeting of ambulances. * Excessive use of lethal force and using civilians as a "human shield". * Ill-treatment, including beatings and degrading treatment, of Palestinian detainees. * Extensive damage to property with no apparent military necessity. Commenting on his preliminary findings following the autopsies he carried out in Jenin Hospital, Professor Derrick Pounder said: "What was striking is what was absent. There were very few bodies in the hospital. There were also none who were seriously injured, only the 'walking wounded'. Thus we have to ask: where are the bodies and where are the seriously injured?" "Delegates stressed that the UN fact-finding mission which was being set up was an important first step towards establishing the truth. However, an independent international commission of inquiry should follow without delay. This should have the means and the expertise necessary to carry out a serious and thorough investigation. "The report of this investigation must be made public and those found responsible brought to justice". ENDS public document For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on +44 20 7413 5566 Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW web : http://www.amnesty.org +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+--+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ [4] European Parliament Members Press Conference Communiqui by the European Parliament, April 22, 2002 19 members of the European Parliament will meet with the press tomorrow, Tuesday, April 23, 2002, at Pacha Room at the American Colony Hotel at 8:00pm straight after their touring of the Jenin Refugee camp. The members will relate their impressions regarding the humanitarian disaster, as described by the International Committee of the Red Cross, the UNRWA and the World Bank, that was staged in Jenin by the Israeli army. All the delegation members voted for the European Parliament resolution that calls for the suspension of the EU-Israel Euro- Med Association Agreement following the all-out military assault at the Palestinian self ruled territories on March 29, 2002. The delegation fully supports the immediate implementation of UNSCR 1397, 1402 and 1403. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytmid-04.25.02-17:24:45-20101