Jenin Redux

Dorit Gabbay
Ma'ariv, April 25, 2007

Five IDF reserve troops who took part in the "Defensive Wall" operation in Jenin and were depicted as war criminals in Muhammad Bakri's production "Jenin, Jenin" have sued the film director and the Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv Cinematheque respectively. This week the five were deposed in court and claimed that the film that had portrayed them as cold-blooded murders had changed their lives and distanced their friends from them.

Five years have elapsed since the terrible events in Jenin. These five men are part of the company that lost 13 combat troops in battle. They feature as war criminals in "Jenin, Jenin", the controversial movie produced and directed by actor Muhammad Bakri (Israeli Arab). Not only were they publicly humiliated, they also started fearing for their lives. In an attempt to clear their names, the five have filed a libel suit against Bakri and the cinematheques, and demanded 2.53 million NIS in compensation.
Yonathan van Caspel was born a Christian in Holland 37 years ago. He came to Israel, converted to Judaism and served as a paratrooper in the IDF: 'I knew that Jenin was the capital of Palestinian terror capital, but I was determined to fulfill my duty for my country. On the eighth day of fighting in Jenin, my company lost 13 combat soldiers in fierce fighting with the Palestinians. This terrible event was extensively covered both by the Israeli and the international media. We were interviewed and our names and addresses were disclosed. My friends and I appear in a film called "Jenin – a reservist's war diary", shot by a fellow reservist during "Defensive Wall Operation". This footage documented the reactions of IDF troops immediately after 13 of their comrades had been killed by Palestinians in the booby trapped alleys of Jenin.
Sometime later, I was contacted by the bereaved mother of one of the soldiers killed in Jenin, appalled by the fact that we were portrayed as monsters and murderers by the film "Jenin, Jenin"… I can hardly describe how shocked I was when I watched the movie myself…The images and the accusations were terrible. Nothing was like we had seen or experienced on the ground... It was enough to convince everybody who knew I had fought in the Defensive Wall Operation that my comrades and I had committed all those heinous crimes. But the worst blow I received was when my own beloved father, who lives in Holland, called and asked me in a stern voice what I had done in Jenin. He told me that he knew that IDF soldiers murdered and massacred residents of Jenin, and wanted to know whether I had anything to do with it. I told him that those were false accusations, but I felt that did not believe me. My own beloved father was under the influence of the terrible accusations, and was wondering whether I had lost the values I had been brought up on and become a monster. My loving father, who knew me so well, who believed in my moral values, who would never have suspected me of war crimes, felt the need to call and ask me what had happened… This is how damaging "Jenin, Jenin" was.
Everybody I knew started confronting me with probing questions, trying to establish whether there was any truth to the film. I found myself defending myself and my fellow soldiers, explaining that nothing like that had ever happened, and that quite the opposite was true – IDF troops remained sensitive to the civilian population, and had made every possible effort not to harm innocent Palestinians.
The fighting in the Jenin refugee camp (by the way, anyone residing in a house is not a refugee. You got to live in a tent in order to be classified as a refugee. Except, of course, if you are a Palestinian) was fierce. We were trying to capture terrorists, but thousands of booby traps and roadside bombs had been hidden in the camp. They were firing and fighting from houses inhabited by innocent people, hiding behind civilians, including women and children. They were using ambulances for terrorist activities. I personally saw loads of booby trapped dollies and toys, just waiting for a soldier to pick them up or touch them…
My fellow soldiers and I experienced and witnessed shocking scenes. Our friends were wounded and died in front of us, sometimes in our arms. And we were the ones accused of war crimes by this film maker …
My friends and I were there the day the film was screened at the Cinematheque, to voice our protest. Members of the audience shouted "Murderers! Nazis! War criminals!", cursed and abused us. I participated in the Defensive Wall Operation for the sake of this country, I wasn't looking for a hero's death. Still I couldn't believe that I would be showered with insults and abuse, so harsh and humiliating…
I began fearing for my own life. I felt exposed. I felt someone might be prompted to take revenge on me for the "crimes" I allegedly committed in the refugee camp.'

Doron Keidar owns and manages a car parts import company. To this day he avoids calling on his Arab customers:
'I saw "Jenin, Jenin" shortly after it started playing and I can hardly describe the shock I experienced. The film is not the work of an amateur, it seems very professional and convincing, so I started asking myself which troops could have perpetrated the horrors it "documents". I thought that perhaps it was a company of "regulars", young troops who perhaps lost it and started shooting at will. It took me a while to understand that it was all fiction, a fabric of lies that had nothing to do with reality. But then I also wondered what people who hadn't been there thought about the troops who had fought in Jenin. The fact that I wasn't able to tell immediately that the film was a pack of lies made me realize that the public would brand us "war criminals", who murdered innocent civilians out of disregard for Arab lives.
The terrible charges brought against me in the film have completely changed my life. I felt ashamed, humiliated and worthless for taking part in this operation. I was embarrassed by the fact that all my friends knew I was a soldier in Jenin.'

Nir Oshri, combat medic, runs a drug rehabilitation center. Most of the soldiers died in his arms: 'I treat drug-addicts at this center. I need to develop a special bond, very close rapport with the patients, for the treatment to succeed. Sometimes the addicts become dependent on me. Many of my patients are Arabs and their situation is very complex and stressful. After "Jenin, Jenin" was aired, I felt a shift in the way my Arab patients were relating to me. Instead of seeing in me their "elder brother", the one who helps them overcome their difficulties, they began avoiding me. I often heard them whispering "Jenin" between themselves, their eyes filled with hatred. I could no longer approach them freely, uninhibitedly. They were suspicious of me. One day one of them started yelling in front of the staff and patients at the center "murderer, you massacred Arabs, tens of little children in Jenin". I felt great pain, such that words cannot describe.'

Adam Arbiv, businessman.
'My father lives in the Arab part of Yaffo-Tel-Aviv. At one time, my office was also there. After the screening of the film I felt that even my closest friends and relatives were unsure about me. My mother, who lives in Holland, asked me several times about my part in the Defensive Wall Operation, and I felt that she was worried that I might have been one of the Jenin "war criminals". The woman who gave me life, who has always been so close to me, began doubting my integrity because of this film. Perhaps some of the viewers understood that the terrible accusations were blown out of proportion, but I guess they also believed that there was still some truth to it.
Some of my relatives living in the US and Canada also contacted me, to enquire in a very around the bush fashion about the terrible actions presented in the movie. Such horrible things can drive a man insane. Nobody will ever be able to compensate me and my fellow soldiers for our stained reputation. How can I put a price to the pain I felt when my own mother needed to make sure that I was or was not a war criminal as portrayed by the film? Or when my relative living abroad looked at me trying to make sure that I was not one of the perpetrators of the heinous crimes in the film?
Due to the terrible accusations we cannot go on with our lives. I was afraid to go see my father in Yaffo. I was afraid for his life. I was afraid to go to my own office in Yaffo. I am afraid and worried to this very day.'

Ofer Ben-Nathan, lawyer:
'All of my lawyer colleagues and associates started to shun me, or even display obvious hostility due to the terrible allegations of the movie. They accused me of having committed massacres and war crimes in Jenin. They weren't even trying to conceal their disgust. I am sure I have lost numerous potential clients, Arabs who would have sought my services by themselves or based on recommendations from Arab colleagues. There were days when I thought I might be forced out of my profession, and I sometimes feared for my life.'

Muhammad Bakri – No need for balance (because I received funding from rabid anti-Semitic terrorist!)
Avigdor Feldman, Bakri's lawyer, claims that the film never intended to present a balanced image of the fighting in Jenin, but rather to allow the Palestinians to tell their story. The stories certainly reflect the events that took place in Jenin. Bakri's deposition is expected within 60 days.

Jenin, Jenin – document or propaganda?
On March 27th, the eve of Passover 2002, a suicide bombing shook the Park Hotel in Netanya. Two days later Operation Defensive Wall was launched, with the purpose of rooting out the terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank. During this operation, on April 3rd, IDF forces entered the Jenin refugee camp, practically the suicide bombers' breeding ground and headquarters. The IDF instructed the civilian population to leave, and then proceeded to enter several houses in order to apprehend terrorists hiding inside them. The troops were met with a tremendous amount of fire and explosive charges from the terrorists hiding among the civilian population. On April 9th 13 combat troops were ambushed and killed. They served in the same company as the five plaintiffs. The IDF decided to send in bulldozers in order to demolish the houses where the terrorists were hiding.
Twenty-three IDF combat troops were killed in Jenin, and 60 others were wounded, some very badly. 52 Palestinians were also killed, half of them civilians.
A few weeks later, actor and director Muhammad Bakri (much like Azmi Bishara in Lebanon) and his film crew toured the camp and shot interviews with some locals who claimed to have seen the troops shoot and kill innocent civilians, women, children and old people, prevent medical assistance to the wounded, and even loot. (Ahem... the Palestinians claim to be so pathetically poor, starving to say the least, and yet there still are valuables to be found in their booby-trapped houses? ) The Film Critics Committee stopped the screening of the film, defining it as "one-sided propaganda, … distortion of real events so as to appear as truthful documentation and give the public a wrong impression…, incitement and deligitimizing the very existence of the State of Israel.
When Muhammad Bakri petitioned the Supreme Court, three Supreme Court "justices" allowed the film to be screened in the Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv Cinematheques respectively.

Read more about Jenin here and here. This is the diary of an ultra-Orthodox soldier who was there. Also some extraordinary pics that, most likely from the writer's private albums.