Israel: censoring Jenin

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Israel bans documentary on army's invasion of Jenin
By Justin Huggler in Jerusalem
The Independent, 12 December 2002

The Israeli film ratings board has banned a documentary on the army's
invasion of Jenin in March, the first block on a film in 15 years.

The documentary, Jenin, Jenin, was filmed by Mohammed Bakri, an Arab with
Israeli citizenship, several weeks after the operation. It shows the huge
area of destruction where Israeli bulldozers levelled more than 100 homes in
Jenin refugee camp, and includes interviews with Palestinians living there.

Nissim Abulouf, the chairman of the film board, wrote in explaining the ban:
"This is a propaganda film that presents the side with which the State of
Israel is in a state of war, in a one-sided manner, while this war is still
going on. It is a movie that severely offends the sentiments of the public,
which might think mistakenly that the IDF [Israeli Defence Force] soldiers
carry out war crimes methodically and deliberately."

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch,
have accused the Israeli army of committing war crimes in Jenin, although
Palestinian claims of a massacre were judged to be untrue in a report by the
United Nations issued in August. Israel says it raided Jenin because of a
series of suicide bombings.

The documentary is said to include interviews in which some of the residents
make claims that were not borne out by the evidence, including stories of a
mass grave.

Mr Bakri said: "This is a great disappointment with [Israeli] democracy, and
proof that it is limited." He said he would appeal against the ban.




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