THE INTERVIEW

 The conflicting accounts of the shooting of Al-Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh during an IDF incursion in Jenin on May 11 brought to mind another Jenin-related incident that occurred 20 years ago. I mention it because I played a very small part in the incident’s public relations (PR) aspect.

The film Jenin, Jenin directed by Mohammed Bakri a well-known Israeli Arab actor was screened long after ‘the dust had settled’ in the Jenin refugee camp. Bakri made the film in order to tell what he called “the Palestinian truth” about the "Battle of Jenin”, a clash between the IDF and Palestinians in April 2002. Often translated as “The Massacre in Jenin”

A month after 18 Israelis were killed in two separate attacks, and a few days after a suicide bombing in Netanya killed 30 people and injured 140 others, the IDF launched “Operation Defensive Shield.” It was a large-scale incursion by IDF units in the Jenin refugee camp, where Palestinian terrorist groups operated from.  

The IDF refused to allow journalists and human rights organisations into the camp for "safety reasons" during the fighting. The closure led to a rapid cycle of rumours that a  massacre had occurred. Jenin remained sealed for days after the raid. Stories of civilians being buried alive in their homes as they were demolished, and of smouldering buildings covering crushed bodies, spread throughout the Arab world. Various casualty figures circulated; a senior Palestinian official accused Israel of massacring more than 500 people in the camp. The closure remained in force and knowing that its finding were a foregone conclusion,  Israel wouldn't allow a UN fact-finding mission into the refugee camp.

In retrospect, some Israeli commentators argued that the press should have been allowed to report from inside the refugee camp. Other  newsmedia analysts justified the decision to keep the press and human rights organisations beyond the line of fire.

Notwithstanding the closure, Mohammed Bakri managed to slip past the barrier after the fighting and film interviews with residents of the Jenin refugee camp. The result Jenin Jenin, featuring a range of testimonies that suggested a massacre had indeed occurred. Bakri gave voice to the perspective of Palestinians which would not reach the media due to the sealing of the city; as a result, he chose not to interview Israeli officials for the film.

Later, Human Rights Watch investigations found "no evidence to sustain claims of massacres or large-scale extrajudicial executions by the IDF in the Jenin refugee camp."

Nevertheless, various spokesmen, human rights organisations, and foreign journalists accused Israel of conducting a civilian massacre.

After a few screenings, the film was banned by the Israeli Film Ratings Board on the premise that it was libellous and might offend the public The Tel Aviv and Jerusalem Cinematheques in Israel showed Bakri's film despite the ban.

Bakri took the ban to court and the Supreme Court of Israel overturned the decision. According to Supreme Court Judge Dalia Dorner: "The fact that the film includes lies is not enough to justify a ban," she implied that it is up to viewers to interpret what they see, citing a ruling by Maimonides: "And with intellect shall distinguish the man, between the truth and the false." On appeal, the Supreme Court's ruling was upheld and in August 2004 the Supreme Court reaffirmed the overturning of the ban, stating that the film board does not have "a monopoly over truth". Although the Supreme Court described the film as a "propagandistic lie," the ruling affirmed that choosing not to show both sides of a story is not grounds for censorship.

While Mohammed Bakri was filming Jenin, Jenin, BBC TV and radio crews waiting for permission to enter the Jenin refugee camp were staying at Ein Harod’s “Country Guest House.” (About 8km as the crow flies from Jenin). Frustrated by the press lockout and reluctant to go home empty-handed, they tried to interview the manager of the guesthouse, who in turn called me to help him. By the time I arrived at the guesthouse the TV camera crew had left, but the radio crew greeted me warmly, set up their recording equipment and began the interview.

 I described the landscape, the historical background, and the reclamation of the Jezreel Valley by Jewish pioneers in the early 1920s. I also emphasised the warm reciprocal relations that existed between the kibbutzim, Moshavim, and the neighbouring Arab villages. The interview was concise and to the point. I compared the amicable relations in the valley with the terrorist attacks emanating from the Jenin area.

After the interview, I went back to work. Half an hour later I received a telephone call from the BBC anchorman who told me that one of his technicians had accidentally deleted the recording of the interview. He apologised profusely and asked me if I would be willing to repeat the recording. Mindful of the importance of the interview, I drove back to the guest house once again.

The following day I had a phone call from an old friend who begins his day with the BBC World News. “I heard you this morning.” He said. “You did a better job than the government spokesman.” He was exaggerating of course. Anyway, I have retired from public broadcasting.

 

Have a good day,

 

Beni,                                                                                       16^th of May, 2022