Many Israeli Arabs are very good at propaganda...


"Back in March 2002, some 130 Israelis were murdered in Palestinian terror attacks culminating in the Passover massacre in a Netanya hotel, which killed 29. In reaction, Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield. As part of the campaign Israeli forces entered the Jenin refugee camp, a major nucleus of terrorist planning and operations.

With Israel finally fighting back militarily, the Palestinians launched a media counterattack. Most famously, Palestinian Authority spokesman Saeb Erekat announced to the world that Israeli forces had massacred "over 500 civilians" in Jenin -- a figure later rounded down to the 52 Palestinians, most of them armed combatants, who were actually killed. Twenty-three Israeli soldiers also died in the fighting -- a direct result of the fact that Israel refrained from bombing or shelling targets in the camp for fear of harming civilians.

Later investigations by human rights NGOs revealed -- even to the UN's satisfaction -- that there had been no massacre or wanton destruction in Jenin and that the Palestinian claims were baseless.

That, however, did not stop Palestinian filmmaker Muhammad Bakri from recycling the same mendacious claims and similar ones in his Jenin, Jenin -- a propaganda film that so enraged Israeli soldiers who were involved in the fighting that five of them, who are shown in still footage in the film, are now suing Bakri for libel. A film by Pierre Rehov, The Road to Jenin, also challenges Bakri's allegations and has been cited in the lawsuit.

Indeed, there was a shadow over Bakri's artistic detachment from the start. In August 2002 two of his cousins, Ibrahim and Yassin Bakri -- Israeli Arabs from the Galilee -- were arrested for involvement in a bus bombing that killed nine...."