Rating: Summary: Please realize what is fact and what is fiction (LIES) Review: "Jenin Jenin" did not set up the background as to why Israel had gone to the camp. In April, 2002 a suicide bomber who lived in Jenin blew himself up in a Netanya hotel where Israelis were celebrating Passover. He killed 29 innocent people. Prior to this bombing, the IDF had withdrawn from the West Bank because of a tentative ceasefire.
The part of the movie with the old man who claims he was shot in his hand and his foot was staged. This 75 year old man was originally treated by Israelis, not Palestinians and his wounds were not bullet wounds and had nothing to do with IDF operations in Jenin. He wasn't even in the hospital for his wounds, he was in the hospital for heart problems and anemia.
There are also many claims in the movie that the IDF used F-16's and destroyed much of the city. The IDF had no F-16's or jetfighters deployed. They used precision helicopter fire, no bombs, and also used hand-to-hand ground combat.
Aerial photographs taken by Israel, and authenticated by the international community, show the destroyed buildings occupied an area a bit larger than a football field. This is very different that what the movie shows and claims.
Dr. Abu Rali who was interviewed throughout the movie, claims that the west-wing of the hospital was destroyed by Israeli forces. The hospital in Jenin has no west-wing and never did. No part of the hospital was damaged by Israeli fire. This is why no footage was shown in the movie of the destroyed wing. It was a lie. When Bakri was asked by an Israeli reporter if he visited the destroyed wing he said "No" he then later changed his story and said that when in the film, he showed a falling piece of glass, this was in the destroyed wing.
Dr. Rali also claimed that Israel cut off water and electricity to the hospital when, in fact, Israel brought them water and a generator to ensure the hospital received continuous electricity.
Dr. Rali, though not shown in the movie, also rejected blood brought in from Israeli aid groups. He refused to use Israeli blood. To solve this problem, the Israeli groups organized blood delivery from Jordan.
One person claims that Israeli tanks ran over Palestinians that were tied down. When the footage rolled it cut off just before the tank ran them over. There was no proof that the tanks actually ran people over found by anyone anywhere.
Another claim is that a baby was struck in the chest by a bullet from an Israeli rifle. They do not say the baby's name, no international aid group or organization has found evidence that this happened even though multiple groups interviewed extensively throughout Jenin.
Muhammad Bakri, the director, is a member of the Bakri family that resides in Beina, Israel. Two relatives of Muhammed Bakri, Ibrahim and Yassin Bakri, were arrested for aiding a suicide bomber that killed 9 Israelis at Rimon Crossroads.
Human Rights Watch, after spending 2 weeks in Jenin after the military operation, doing extensive surveying, interviewing, and research, did not find evidence of systematic summary executions as claimed by some in the movie.
Tents- There was no sign of life in the tents. The man and his baby went into the tent as if they were just moving into it but the movie was shot weeks after the operation in Jenin. Everybody would have been there already.
The Operation
Jenin's history- Since the Intifada started in 2000 more than 20 suicide bombers have come from Jenin.
Palestinian casualties and massacre claim- There was no massacre and this was confirmed by the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, the European Union, and the United Sates. The Palestinian Authority has backed down from the claim that over 500 were killed. They now say that about 56 were killed, 34 were armed militants. Israel claims that between 50 and 60 were killed and 43 were armed militants. Israel admits there are more dead than the Palestinian Authority does. So how are they trying to hide something.
Israeli casualties- During the Jenin operation, Israel lost 23 of its soldiers which proves that there was an intense firefight. If militants can kill 23 trained soldiers there must have been a lot of them coming from all directions. This may explain why there was some loss of innocent life.
"Innocents"- There was a loss of innocent life. For the intensity of the fighting this number was kept extremely low. Had there been more loss of innocent life, the Palestinians would have blamed the Israelis even though children were believed to have been fighting.
"Believe me, there are children stationed in the houses with explosive belts at their sides."
-Abu Jandal, Islamic Jihad
Destroyed Buildings- Many of the building were booby trapped and destroyed by the Palestinians' own bombs. Estimates are that over 50 buildings were booby trapped.
"We had more than 50 houses booby-trapped around the camp. We chose old and empty buildings and the houses of men who were wanted by Israel because we knew the soldiers would search for them."
-"Omar Safori," Islamic Jihad
Rating: Summary: Islamic Palest. confesses: I lied! NO Massacre AT ALL Review: (...)
Palestinian producer: False film funded by PA
Documentary claims Israeli army committed war crimes
January 17, 2005
A Palestinian filmmaker who produced a documentary alleging Israeli troops committed war crimes in a refugee camp admitted in a deposition last week to falsifying scenes, using inaccurate information and obtaining financing for the project from the Palestinian Authority, WorldNetDaily has learned.
Muhammad Bakri, producer of "Jenin, Jenin," a documentary that claims Israel committed genocide in the Jenin refugee camp in April 2002, admitted in a deposition to inaccuracies throughout his film. The filmmaker is being sued by five Israeli soldiers visible in still footage in the film, which alleges IDF troops killed a "large number" of civilians, mutilated Palestinian bodies, randomly executed and bombed women, children and the mentally and physically impaired, and leveled the entire refugee camp, including a wing of the local hospital.
The documentary doesn't show footage of the alleged atrocities, but in some scenes, faces of the soldiers now suing Bakri were superimposed over "eyewitness testimony," and it was indicated they had committed "war crimes."
But Bakri, in a deposition obtained by WND, admitted he "believed" selected witnesses but didn't check the information they provided.
"I believed the things that I've been told. What I did not believe was not included in the film," said Bakri.
When asked about a scene in which it is implied Israeli troops ran over civilians, Bakri admitted to constructing the footage himself as an "artistic choice." He also answered "no" when asked if he believed "that during the operation in Jenin, the Israeli soldiers killed people indiscriminately."
In perhaps the most explosive element of the deposition, Bakri admitted his documentary, which was screened in theaters around the world, was financed in part by the Palestinian Authority. He said Yasser Abed Rabu, Palestinian minister of culture and information and a member of former PLO leader Yasser Arafat's executive committee, "covered a part of the film expenses."
Israel entered Jenin, which was considered a center for terrorist recruitment and operations, as part of its Operation Defensive Shield to crack down on increased suicide bombings by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. Israel sent infantry units to fight house-to-house and lost nearly two dozen soldiers to ambushes, Palestinian snipers and booby-trapped houses.
Claims of a massacre were immediately made following the operation by the Palestinian leadership, which spoke of upwards of 500 civilians killed and thousands wounded, but it was later determined 56 Palestinians, mostly gunmen, were killed, and 23 Israeli soldiers died in the battle.
Media accounts, documentary evidence and investigations by several international humanitarian organizations quickly proved there was no massacre....
Rating: Summary: Simply Wonderful Review: A beautiful painting that is artistically and carefully drawn to depict the gagged side, a scream for humanity and the portayal of a modern 'holocoust'.
Rating: Summary: Two Thumbs Up, Way Up Review: A bunch of us watched this movie last night and I tell you, there was not one dry eye in the house. It is amazing that in this day and age, a country [Israel] can literally get away with murder.Run to buy this and judge for yourself. You will see first hand the old men, the children, the doctors and the grieving mothers of Jenin. You will hear how much the prolonged oppression and terror has affected the state of mind of the Palestinian inhabitants of Jenin and elsewhere in the Occupied Territories of Gaza and the West Bank. You will see the aftermath of the April 2002 attack which flattened homes and buried an unknown number of civilians -- scenes reminiscent of (if not worse than) South-African Apartheid at its height.
Rating: Summary: Must See to Believe! Review: A great document! Israel cannot sensor the truth forever.
Rating: Summary: Portrait of a People Under Seige.....AMAZING..!!! Moving... Review: After reading the Neo-con's critique of this BRILLIANT film I HAD to share my opinion of Bakri's work. With the world as witness to the IDF's military incursion into a CIVILIAN REFUGEE CAMP, which in itself breaks all known INTERNATIONAL LAW including the Geneva Convention Protocols as to treatment of civilians under military control, and against the Nuremberg Charter which was created as a result of the Nazi genocide, Israel's Sharon REFUSED to allow UN or ICRC (Red Cross) inspectors into the camp to view the damage, and when even former Israeli Minister Shimon Peres had a moment of lucidity and proclaimed Jenin a "MASSACRE" it was decried in Israel as being a lie. Mohammed Bakri, a Arab Israeli actor and film-maker went into the camp and captured for the audience not only pictures of the result, weeks after the IDF had bulldozed wreckage and bodies with their destruction, but the heart of his film is not either merely the damage or the "disappearance" of it, but the powerful interviews with long time residents of the camp who suffered losses, and terror but as we see, they did NOT lose their humanity....Bakri even manages to capture a "theater of the absurd" bit of humor with a street vendor of plastic flip flops, who uses one as a pretend telephone for passers-by who have a laugh at themselves along with the perpetrators of that violence by IDF. A MUST SEE!! I am an American and a Jew who no longer fears looking at the truth of the Zionist Occupation....and at the suffering of a people. Palestinians voices not only should be heard, they MUST be heard and their struggle against a racist apartheid on their own land must cease, and the treasure of US tax dollars which are used to oppress them must cease.! JENIN JENIN is one of the FEW bits of film that escaped Occupation. On 11 Nov the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the Censors and has "officially" given permission to publicly release this film. A MUST SEE!
Rating: Summary: Question Of Propaganda??? Review: Calling this video a deceptive tool of propaganda is the same as saying the Holocaust never existed. Most educated individuals do not doubt the horrors committed by the Nazi regime, just as most educated individuals are aware of the horrors inflicted on the Palestinians at the hands of indicted war criminals like me, Ariel Sharon.
Rating: Summary: Israeli troops sue Bakri Review: Five Israeli Defense Force soldiers pictured in this film are suing Palestinian filmmaker Mohammed Bakri for allegedly falsifying information about them. The film charges Israel with genocide in a refugee camp, despite proof that nothing of the sort actually happened. French director Pierre Rehov last year created a film, "The Road to Jenin" (available online) that blasts these charges to bits.
Bakri admitted in a deposition last week to falsifying scenes, using inaccurate information and obtaining financing for the project from the Palestinian Authority, WorldNetDaily has learned.
The film implies that five IDF soldiers (seen in the film's still footage) in April 2002 killed a "large number" of civilians, mutilated Palestinian bodies, randomly executed and bombed women, children and the mentally and physically impaired, and leveled the entire refugee camp, including a wing of the local hospital.
But this "documentary" contains no footage of the alleged atrocities. Rather, it superimposes the still images over "eyewitness testimony," thereby suggesting that they committed "war crimes" in Jenin.
Palestinian sources made similar charges in April 2002 following the Jenin battle, when they charged that Israelis had killed upwards of 500 civilians wounded thousands. In fact, the United Nations concluded in a thorough investigation that only 56 Palestinians, mostly gunmen, were killed, while 23 Israeli soldiers were killed during the battle by booby-trapped houses and suicide bombers. Indeed, this accounting was confirmed by evidence and the investigations conducted by several international humanitarian organizations. There was never a massacre in Jenin.
Israel entered Jenin, which it considered a center for terrorist recruitment and operations, during Operation Defensive Shield with the purpose of halting a wave of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade suicide bombings in 2001 and early 2002. In order to spare civilians, Israeli infantry units fought house-to-house and lost nearly two dozen soldiers to ambushes.
Several "witnesses" in this film describe IDF "brutality" with claims that Israel attacked and killed "many, many" Palestinians with tanks, planes and snipers. But Bakri, like so many others who have made similar false charges, does not list the exact number of Palestinians killed, much less their names.
Rehov's film, apparently disproves Bakri's claims, and was cited in the Israeli soldiers' lawsuit . Bakri, for example, charges that Israel fired 11 missiles at a Jenin hospital, leveling the facility with patients inside and later refused to let emergency personnel access the area. Dr. Mustafa Abo Gali says, "The whole of the west wing was destroyed. Fighter planes launched their missiles every three minutes." Gali makes the same claim in Rehov's film; but the latter also filmed the "damage," which consists of a small hole outside the building, where the entire west wing remains very much intact. Rehov also shows aerial images of the hospital from the last day of Israel's Jenin incursion; the hospital was fine then, too.
Moreover, IDF medical officer Dr. David Zangen tells Rehov (on film) how the soldiers treated wounded Palestinians, including Hamas "fighters." This testimony is validated by film shot--at the time--of an Israeli soldier issuing orders that Gali receive all necessary medical supplies.
The inconsistencies in this film's "witness testimony" are quite plain. One older interviewee claims that Israelis forced Palestinian prisoners to fully undress "in front of their brothers, sisters and children, who were used as human shields." But Bakri's accompanying images show a group of Palestinians, all of them wearing pants.
The film also alleges that the IDF shot unarmed Palestinian villager Ali Youssef in the hands and feet. Rehov interviewed Youssef for his documentary: Youssef was shot once in the hand--while standing in a housing complex with Hamas gunmen.
Moreover, Israeli medics treated Youssef, discovered a congenital heart problem, and transported him to Israel for treatment in an Afula hospital. Hospital papers confirm Rehov's findings that Youseff was not shot in the leg at all.
The film also contains deceptive techniques to create false impressions of a massacre. In one scene, a tank heads toward a crowd. The image then blacks out, suggesting the people were all killed, according to Dr. Zangren, who adds that Bakri was not in Jenin at any time during the battle. Yet he deceptively juxtaposes images of Israeli tanks and snipers next to shots of Palestinian children.
The five soldiers suing Bakri in Tel Aviv seek more than $500,000 in damages, according to WorldNetDaily. The lawsuit charges Bakri with making false claims that have endangered their lives: The soldiers, as current Israeli reservists, remain in constant professional contact with Arabs, some of whom may recognize and attack them as a direct result.
--Alyssa A. Lappen
Rating: Summary: Directed towards the above review Review: I do not agree with your above comments because i don't think you should blame the Palestians but rather the source of the problem. If Sharon wants to keep occupying a land that is not even his, than this is the consequence. The Palestinians are not criminals but rather people who have nothing to lose. To them, their life is a question mark everyday. They dont know if they will live to watch the next day. You say 6 Israelis were killed during the massacre. What about the Palestinians. Thousands have been killed and even the news omits some of their deaths due to the great numbers. The problem also lies with the United State's foreign policy. They show such double standards. When Saddaam attacked Kuwait, the USA called him a terrorist. When Sharon attacks Palestine, he is just being praised or supported. And mind you, Kuwait was part of Iraq before unlike Palestine never being part of Israel. You should watch Gaza Strip and see the extent of Israeli cruelty. I mean, they attack little kids coming back from school. How are those kids terrorists?
Rating: Summary: Very Very Sad Review: I have read the various reviews and comments about this film. IF this film was distributed as a work of Fiction having no connection with reality then I would not rate it at all. A work of fiction is not held to any standard of factual reliability so and it would have no connection with the real world. Each person chooses his or her own fantasy to enjoy.
Apparently this film pretends to make a record of what actually occurred. The incidents alleged to be addressed by this film have been carefully investigated by various International Organizations including the United Nations (no friend of Israel) and also by the United States, and Israel itself. Various other governments were seriously concerned with the allegations. These Official investigations and records are available and fully document what occurred. The Official investigations show beyond any question that Israel did not destroy the Town of Jenin and did not intentionally kill the civilians who might have been in the area of the battle. Israel did not cause the death of the people as alleged in the film and as alleged at other times by various propaganda.
SO the question is: what do the comments here about the film reveal. It reveals that many people are easily deceived and apparently not willing to actually read the investigations conducted over the allegations. IF you are not interested enough to find out the truth by reviewing the voluminous records and studies conducted by reputable and reliable organizations then why pretend that you care?
Someone who cares wants to learn the truth and not just watch a film or tv program. Reading takes a little work but it is a great reward. Are the viewers of this film just commenting on this Amazon site about how they liked this work of FICTION? This imaginary film? OR do they actually believe that these things happened as the film pretends and fantasizes?
SO it is very, very, sad when people who apparently care so much about an allegation are not willing to make the effort to read the studies and reports about the incident but accept a film of fantasy as being reality. If this type of NON fact checking and intellectual dishonesty continues to pervade our American culture then we will be further distanced from reality and our judgments will become weak and ineffective. Nothing is more important than Truth and making the effort to find the Truth. One of the reasons why Peace is so hard to achieve in that area of the world is the way of life that the Truth is secondary to social feelings and needs. Peace cannot be achieved by falsehood. This film is just another stab at the Arab and Israeli people in that region by continuing to portray fantasy as reality. It is an insult to all viewers. (...)
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