Correction

In quickly dashing off my comments, reprinted below, I erroneously used the
phrase:  "films that consistently portray Arabs as lesser than Christians
and Jews".   As most people on this list know, those are not parallel
groups. There are many Christian Arabs and a significant number of Jews also
who are, essentially, Arabs. The term I was reaching for was something like:
"films that consistently portray Arabs as lesser than those of European
ancestry."

Alan Spector

==========================================================


----- Original Message -----
From: "Alan Spector" <spectors@netnitco.net>
To: "WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK" <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 11:16 PM
Subject: Re: Israeli Atrocities Question Mark


> Forging phony films with fake atrocities is wrong. Spreading racist lies
> such as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is wrong. Both are appalling
and
> must be condemned.  Once again, though, we should be reminded about who is
> doing most of the atrocities and most of the propagandistic lies.
>
> At this point, someone might accuse me of softening up the criticism of
the
> anti-Jewish propaganda or insisting that every condemnation of anti-Jewish
> propaganda must be simultaneously accompanied by a condemnation of every
> anti-Arab act.  Well, I am not saying that.  I am saying that as a
> stand-alone comment, any forgeries and especially any propagation of the
> Protocols of the Elders of Zion must be condemned.
>
> As a separate point, however, it is important for people to have some kind
> of context. Just how much forging has gone on by commission and omission
by
> the US and Israeli governments?  How much does the average person in the
US
> know about the murders in the South Lebanon camp committed with the
consent
> of Sharon and the supposedly "Heroic" as they are described below, IDF.
> (Israeli Defense Forces). Is it true that they  have only fought against
> terrorists and terrorists alone? Of course not. And how many, many lies we
re
> told by the US government, forgeries during Vietnam, Greneda, Panama, and
> the Gulf War (remember the supposed film of the Iraqi munitions dump being
> exploded by a US "smart bomb" that turned out to be film of a US Army
truck
> being exploded in the US for a training film?).
>
> The racist stereotyping against Jews must be condemned. But look at the
> steady diet of anti-Arab stereotypes that fill US popular Hollywood films.
> True, those films usually admit to being fiction, but the impact on the US
> public, especially youth is very strong. How many such films? Fifty, a
> hundred? Seen by how many tens of millions, hundreds of millions of
> people..........films that consistently portray Arabs as "lesser than
> Christians and Jews."
>
> We should have absolutely NO PATIENCE with anyone that spreads anti-Jewish
> propaganda. NONE. It is inexcusable. But that does not mean one must
support
> the misery that the Israeli government, with US government backing, has
> brought down on hundreds of thousands of Arabs, nor the propaganda and
lies
> that are used to justify that oppression.
>
> Alan Spector
>
> ================================================
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Alan Krebs" <alankrebs303@hotmail.com>
> To: <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
> Sent: Saturday, December 07, 2002 11:38 PM
> Subject: Israeli Atrocities Question Mark
>
>
> >
> >
> >
> > For all the Israel-obsessed on this list, a piece of some interest.
> >
> > AK
> >
> > Subject:  Jenin: Anti-Israel mythology
> >
> > Dangerous traveling documentary regarding things that never took place
> > in Jenin: Your attention needed NOW.
> >
> > This new anti-Israel documentary about the alleged incidents in Jenin,
> > will be traveling around the world, shown to audiences in order to
> > create anger and anti-Israel sentiment. Programs like: The Protocols of
> > the Elders of Zion are shown in Egypt because there is no world outcry.
> > Only Jewish outcry. But here it is, in your faces, a traveling
> > documentary about the shelling of hospital wings in Jenin (hospital
> > wings that never existed) a story of a dead baby with no name or body
> > ever found, a story about an old man who lies about being shot in the
> > hand and foot when in reality he did have light injury to his hand but
> > was in fact treated in an Israeli hospital for chronic anemia, imaginary
> > bodies being crushed by Israeli tanks, and imaginary mass graves dug by
> the
> > IDF to hide bodies. The film talks about Israeli planes that supposedly
> > bombed the city. There were no such planes. The film systematically and
> > repeatedly uses manipulative pictures of tanks taken in other locations,
> > artificially placing them next to pictures of
> > Palestinian children.
> >
> > WHAT TO DO???
> >
> > Tell everyone about this by forwarding this entire note to your list.
> > Send this to other organizations, other leaders.
> > The standwithus membership is international...due to the blessings of
> > the internet...we have a far reach... each one of you has a far reach as
> > well... alert everyone about this...and when it comes back to you from
> other
> > organizations, you will know that we have made a diffence. At the very
> least
> > we have alerted everyone that such a false film is about to be shown...
> That
> > we have hopefully tainted this lying film to any responsible station who
> > might consider airing such hateful propaganda.
> >
> > Special thanks to Standwithus member Janet Levy
> >
> > Please read:
> >
> > SEVEN LIES ABOUT JENIN (Presented in New Palestinian Documentary to be
> > Viewed Worldwide) By David Zangen, M.D
> >
> > (Commentary by Dr. David Zangen, Ma'ariv, 8.11.2002, Weekend Supplement)
> > 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.
> >
> > 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.
> > 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 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 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 I treated him, among others. One of
the
> > military doctors identified diagnosed a 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?
> >
> > 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
> > 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.
> >
> > 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.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
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