Customer Reviews

Jenin Jenin [VHS]

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

For anyone who is not informed on how the Palestanians are oppressed you must see this video. The day to day life and death struggles the Palestanians have to endure at the hands of the Israeli Government, comes across in its most raw images.

To the people who have stated that this film is a fraud, and that such massacres have never occurred in Jenin SHAME ON YOU. How could you say that. You are worse than those who deny the Holocaust happening. Why must history repeat itself in a gross manner? Considering I have lived in Jenin, I find this film to be extremely accurate. A must see.

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.

This movie was initially banned when released in Israel, due to allegations that it was a vehicle of propaganda and included lies. Within the last year the Israeli court decision to ban the movie was over turned. In the documentary, director Mohamed Bakri interviews people from Jenin whose houses were demolished, who witnessed the many deaths and destruction of property that resulted from the violent Israeli incursion into the West Bank town of Jenin in 2002.

Israeli and International Human Rights groups, as well as many foreign countries denounced the incursion, since collective punishment (such as Israel's routine demolishing houses of suspected criminals; which leaves many families rather than only an alleged criminal homeless) is illegal. There were also stories of an incredible amount or casualites.

Israel refused to allow the UN-appointed commission of inquiry or any medical teams to investigate the area during and immediately following the attack (denial of medical teams to treat the injured also violates international law). People who were present described the scene as the equivalnet of genocide and the term massacre was used frequently by reporters who finally found a way to enter Jenin. Photoraphers who were seen attempting to take photos of the destrcution were shot at by Israeli Defense Forces. I remember seeing the horrifying images in papers because I was in Europe at the time, where coverage of the Middle Eat is more objective, and they gave nightmares. By comparison, the US media paid little attention.

The Israelis who opposed this film, and not all do, claim that one the people interviewed did not really sustain his injuries from the Israeli actions (the old man in the hospital). They also claimed that an insufficient number of people died in order for the act to be considered "genocidal" or "a massacre."

The movie lets the victims tell their version of the story, which the US media never covers. I doubt it, but I suppose there is a possibility that the onld man may be a person who embellished his tale for the documentary, just as there has been books written by Jews (and well received by book critics) about the horrors of the Holocaust, but who in fact actually lied when they said that they personally experienced them.

What is devastating to watch is the all the children who are casualties of the war, and to hear the hatred that is being caused by the violence. Here is a new generation displaced, and full of more anger than any before. How can practices that excite such hatred and hoplessness help improve prospects for peace?

The facts that remain undisputed: that many civilians died and much personal property was destroyed; the level of destruction; and that many children were made homeless, are scarred for life (and it is easy to see how they could feel hopeless about peace and become the new recruits for suicide bombing). When Israeli forces destroy Palestian homes, the Israeli state prevents most from rebuilding their houses, by denying them permits and demolishing any houses that are built without the permits. The documentary is not able to demonstrate fully the extent of the damage.

As an American, it is sickening to watch the docmumentary and realize that the US is paying for this destruction; it gives Israel more aid than any other country and most of the aid is received in the form of arms used to ruin the lives of Palestinians. It also made me wonder what the US troops are doing to the Iraqi civlians, since they recieved training from Israeli forces, and the US media is nortorious for only preenting the story that the US administration wants its people to hear in times of war.

Remember too, while watching this that Jenin is in the West Bank. Palestinians either live in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, and there is a great difference in living standards between the two. More documentaries (Gaza Strip, A Death in Gaza) have been made that demonstrate the institutionalized horrors of living under Israeli occupation in the Gaza Strip, which the inhabitants and the IDF stationed there often refer to as "hell." In comparison, the West Bank has more arable land, much of the water that the Israeli population uses, and is much more desiraeble to Israeli settlers. Any destruction of Palestinian property in the West Bank seems like a covert tactic to encourage the people to flee as refugees, so that new illegal settlements can be built by the Israeli state and more Palestinian land can be be grabbed.

The movie tells the documentry about the life of palestinians under terrible military occupation; as anyone expected. The special one about this movies was the death of director during the film. Think about which American film director was killed during filiming for filming the truth ; none as I know of. The stark reality is that the documentry director must risk their lives to tell the actual suffering of palestinian people outside. If this wasn't the truth, he didn't need to be killed. Nobody gets killed for telling lies or generating propagande. People get killed only when they tell the truth. It's obvious truism. You better see the movie not only because it's good, but also it cost one courageous human life to produce the film.

Moving and compelling without showing violance. It tells its story and achieves its objectives through everyday life of real people.

Should an army intentionally incur more casualties in order to minimize civilian deaths in an enemy city? It's not always an easy decision. Still, in Jenin, the doves in Israel won out, and the battle was handled in a truly heroic and humane fashion. That made no difference to many antizionists, who automatically told the usual lies, such as the ones in this movie. But it made a big difference to the Israelis, the vast majority of whom are very proud of Israeli behavior in Jenin and see the lies about Jenin as far worse than those about many other battles.

The battle for Jenin was a test for antizionists. And many of them flunked it. This movie is a good example of that. But it is not the only example. British newspapers such as the Guardian, the Evening Standard, the Independent, and the Times also flunked. And the usually very varied Israeli press was close to unanimous in condemning the lies in these newspapers.

According to Dr. David Zangen, who was actually in Jenin during the fighting (Bakri, who made the film, was not there until two weeks later), there are several major lies in this movie. Here are three examples of them:

1) The film says that a wing of the Jenin hospital was destroyed and that the Israeli Defence Forces purposely disrupted the supply of water and electricity to the hospital. In fact, the IDF troops were careful not to enter the hospital, even though they were aware that it was being used to shelter wanted people. The IDF maintained the supply of water, electricity and oxygen to the hospital throughout the fighting. And no part of the hospital was shelled or bombed.

2) There was a very strange claim about a fatally wounded baby who died after soldiers prevented his evacuation to a hospital. But no body of a baby was found, nor was the name of this baby ever revealed. The person making this claim also told of tanks crushing people alive: this simply did not happen.

3) Bakri's film mentions mass graves in which the Israeli soldiers put dead Arabs. However, there is agreement that only 52 Arabs died in the battle.

This film is indeed anti-Israeli. But it is not really pro-anything. It is propaganda that simply serves to make the world more violent, hate-filled, and murderous.

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?

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.

In a January 2005 deposition, Bakri admitted to falsifying scenes, using inaccurate information and obtaining financing for the project from the Palestinian Authority.

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.

[Update, Dec. 20, 2009: In July 2008, an Israeli court ruled that the film was indeed slanderous --- but threw out the IDF plaintiffs' suit against Bakri since the film had not personally singled them out.]

Palestinian sources likewise made false allegations of mass murder in April 2002 following the Jenin battle, when they claimed that IDF forces had killed upwards of 500 civilians and wounded thousands. However, the United Nations concluded in a thorough investigation that only 56 Palestinians, mostly gunmen, were killed --- while 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in the battle by booby-trapped houses and suicide bombers, facts that physical evidence confirmed in investigations conducted by several international humanitarian organizations.

There was never a massacre in Jenin --- except the massacre of 23 IDF forces.

Israel entered Jenin, a terrorist recruitment and operations center, during Operation Defensive Shield to halt a 2001 and early 2002 wave of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade suicide bombings. To spare civilian lives, Israeli infantry units fought house-to-house and lost nearly two dozen soldiers to ambushes.

Several "witnesses" in this film describe IDF "brutality," claiming that Israel attacked and killed "many, many" Palestinians with tanks, planes and snipers. But Bakri, like so many others who've made similar false charges, doesn't list the number of Palestinians killed --- much less their names.

Rehov's film 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 sought more than $500,000 in damages. It alleged that Bakri's false claims had endangered the soldiers' lives: As Israeli reservists, they remained in constant professional contact with Arabs, some of whom could recognize and attack them as a direct result.

--Alyssa A. Lappen

I watched Muhammad Bakri's film Jenin, Jenin in a limited forum, with

Jerusalem Cinematheque Director Leah Van Leer and several journalists.

After the private screening, I responded and indicated each lie and lack of

credibility. One of those present at the screening was outraged: "If you

don't accept the facts in the film, you apparently don't understand

anything; how can you be a doctor?"

For a moment, I forgot that I had been in Jenin last April, serving as a

regional brigade doctor, while this viewer had, at best, been fed on rumors.

Bakri expertly weaves together lies and half-truths until it becomes very

difficult not to be seduced by the distorted picture he creates.

I did not succeed in convincing the Cinematheque management to cancel the

screening. I was told that the pictures of destroyed homes were authentic

and that there was, therefore, truth in the film, and that the film would be

shown around the world in any case. Even so, I was invited to its premiere

screening in Jerusalem and I arrived in order to explain my position to the

audience. Following are several points that I wished to raise to the

audience:

1. Dr. Abu Riali, director of the hospital in Jenin, claims in the film that

the western wing of the hospital was shelled and destroyed and that the IDF

knowingly hit the hospital's water and power supplies. There never was any

such wing and in any case, no part of the hospital was either shelled or

blown up. IDF soldiers took care not to enter its grounds even though we

knew that it was serving as a refuge for several wanted fugitives. We

guarded the water, electricity and oxygen supplies to the hospital all

throughout the fighting and assisted in setting up an emergency generator

after the city's electrical system was damaged. Bakri himself is seen in

the film wandering the hospital's clean and well-kept corridors, but not in

the blown up wing. I met him outside the theater and asked him if he had

visited the western wing. At first he said no, then he corrected himself

and said, "You remember one moment in the film with shattered glass - it was

from there." It is important to point out that this Abu Riali is one of the

"authorized sources" for the claim of a "massacre." At the beginning of the

operation, he was interviewed on Al-Jazeera television and spoke of,

"thousands of victims."

2. Another impressive part of the film is the interview with a male

75-year-old Jenin resident who mumbles and cries and tells how he was taken

out of his bed in the middle of the night, shot in the hand, and after he

failed to obey the soldiers' command to get up, was shot again in the foot.

I met this very same old man as he was brought to me after an operation to

clear one of the Hamas cells' houses in the refugee camp. He had indeed

been lightly injured in the hand and was suffering from a minor scratch on

the foot, but certainly not as the result of a bullet. IDF soldiers

transferred him to a secure station that had been set up to treat wounded

and there he was treated by me, among others. One of the military doctors

identified diagnosed a heart problem. We suggested that he be transferred

immediately to Haemek Hospital in Afula for treatment. He asked to be

treated at the hospital in Jenin since he did not speak Hebrew. After the

hospital refused to admit him, we transferred him to Afula and he stayed

there for three days in the internal medicine department for treatment of

his heart problems and the anemia that he suffered from as a result of

another chronic illness.

3. Another person who was interviewed spoke about a baby who suffered a

chest wound from a bullet that entered through his chest and exited his

body, creating a hole in his back. According to the film the baby died

after IDF soldiers prevented his evacuation to hospital. A baby's body with

this type of injury has never been found. Moreover, such an injury would

have been fatal, and evacuation would not have saved his life. What is this

baby's name? Where did his body disappear to?

4. The same person interviewed also told how, using his finger, he opened

the baby's airway in his neck after he was injured.

Again, a complete lie. Such an action cannot be carried out with a finger.

This "witness" adds that tanks ran over living people many times until they

were completely crushed - this never happened and is imaginary.

5. The film mentions a mass gravesite that IDF soldiers dug for Palestinian

dead. Every international organization that investigated the matter concur

that there were 52 Palestinian dead in Jenin, and that all the bodies were

returned to the Palestinians for burial. Bakri does not bother to show the

supposed location of this mass gravesite.

6. Israeli planes that supposedly bombed the city are mentioned in the film.

There were no such planes. In order to prevent civilian casualties, only

focused helicopter fire was used.

7. It is interesting to note that Bakri was not present in Jenin at the time

of the operation, and only arrived two weeks after it was completed. In

pictures shot at the site in the center of Jenin, the damage appears much

larger than it was in actual fact, and the martyrs' pictures and jihad

slogans - which had been present at the time of the IDF military operation -

had disappeared from the walls of houses. The film systematically and

repeatedly uses manipulative pictures of tanks taken in other locations,

artificially placing them next to pictures of Palestinian children.

In general, this is a vulgar, but extremely well done, work of manipulation.

At the conclusion of the film, hundreds of viewers gave Bakri and the film's

editor a standing ovation. Bakri asked the audience if there were any

questions. I presented myself, I went up to the stage and began to

systematically list the lies and inaccuracies in the film.

At first there were whispers in the audience, and later scornful calls, and

I was labeled a "murderer," "war criminal" etc. I had barely succeeded in

finishing my second point when a man in the audience aggressively came up on

stage and tried to take the microphone out of my hand. I decided not to be

dragged into violence. I allowed him to take the microphone and left the

stage. I was surprised that only a few people stood up for my right to free

speech and free expression. I was shocked that the audience was unwilling

to hear the facts from someone who had physically been there.

It was difficult for me as a person, as a father and a doctor to hear calls

of "murderer" from my people. I said that I did not kill anyone. But the

calls became more heated, immense hatred was directed towards me. It left

me with a hard feeling that has not subsided. I am not sorry that I went to

the Cinematheque that evening. I am certain that in any case there were

people who heard my doubts, and that this changed a small amount of their

feelings towards the "facts" they saw. I am sure there were other people

who were shocked at the intolerance demonstrated by the audience, but even

so, it is hard for me [to accept] that they were the silent minority.

Allow me to say what I was unable to say to those people that evening. I am

proud that I was part of this excellent and ethical force that operated in

Jenin, regular army soldiers and reservists with motivation and a fighting

spirit, who went to destroy the terrorist infrastructure in its capital.

Many suicide-bombers came from Jenin, and were responsible for the murder of

the elderly, women and children on our streets. I am proud that we were

there, that we fought, and I also am proud of the morality of the battle.

The camp was not bombed from the air in order to prevent innocent civilian

casualties, and artillery was not used even though we knew about specific

areas in the [refugee] camp where terrorists were holing up. IDF soldiers

fought against terrorists, and terrorists only. Before destroying a

building where terrorist fire against our soldiers had originated from, as

many warnings as could be allowed, were given, so that the people could

leave without injury. The medical team administered medical aid to all

casualties, even if they had Hamas tattoos on their hands. At no point was

any person refused medical treatment.

This battle, heroic on one hand and ethical on the other, took a heavy toll

from the best of our fighters! We who had to be there - the soldiers that

fell there, their families and the IDF - do not deserve that Muhammad Bakri

should incite the world to murder and hatred at our expense.

(Commentary by Dr. David Sangan, Ma'ariv, 8.11.2002, Weekend Supplement)