Pictures of Mass Graves in Jenin

Palestinians bury their dead in mass grave in an olive grove on the edge of Jenin April 19, 2002. An Israeli army pullout earlier in the day brought no joy to residents of the camp, where so far 39 Palestinians have been confirmed killed in the worst violence of a West Bank blitz Israel launched after a spate of Palestinian suicide bombings. Hospital officials believe the toll will climb into the hundreds as corpses are recovered from the rubble of the camp. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

Palestinians identify bodies that were buried behind Jenin refugee camp hospital and dug up for proper burial, in the Jenin refugee camp Friday, April 19 2002. The U.N. envoy to the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen, said after a tour of the camp on Thursday that conditions were "horrifying beyond belief". Palestinians claim that hundreds of dead are buried in the rubble of the camp after Israeli forces used helicopter gunships, tanks, and bulldozers, to level many houses in order to retain tight control of the camp and surrouding area as part of a military offensive that began March 29. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

i do not support israeli military incursions, and i do not support fundamentalist muslim suicide bombers.

these pics and text are a typical example of how media can be manipulated by even left-leaning peple.

please, if you're gonna call it a massacre, go there and count the bodies that are being dug up.

don't put together unfounded reports, sound-bites, and photos of under a dozen bodies.

i don't believe mainstream media repots, and i don't believe you. i suggest you research proper journalistic techniques before you jump to conclusions...

Why should I believe those are bodies!? The filthy palinazi's probably stuffed those body bags with rags, and sprinkled a little chicken blood on them for their propaganda pictures.

I see. Of course the word of the Palestinians is not enough. It is not enough that IDF kept journalists out at gunpoint as they destroyed and flattened the city of Jenin. It is not enough that IDF kept out internationals with aid of food and medicine. It is not enough that IDF kept water/electricity and telephone off in Jenin for 3 weeks. It is not enough that there are eyewitness accounts and pictures of body parts everywhere, it is not enough that IDF said they would "bury the bodies themselves" ...
you last 2 commenters are ignorant. wake up to the realities of heavy armed combat -- it isnt an exact science. lots and lots of innocent people die when you do what IDF did to jenin.

American journalists haven't been nearly as bad as their British counterparts in reporting on phony charges of an Israeli massacre in the "refugee camp" at Jenin, but they haven't always distinguished themselves either. A case in point is today's Washington Post story, which reports:

"Palestinian officials have backed away from earlier charges of a massacre in Jenin. But much about the battle remains a mystery. Mohammed Abu Ghali, director of the Palestinian Authority-run hospital in Jenin, said he is aware of 37 bodies recovered from the camp; 23 of them, he said, are waiting to be claimed by relatives from shallow temporary graves in a dirt lot next to the hospital."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10944-2002Apr18.html


What's wrong with this passage is its placement in the story--it's the fifth paragraph from the bottom. The headline is "In Jenin, U.N. Envoy Witnesses 'Horrifying' Scene." That envoy, Terje Roed-Larsen, is quoted as saying: "Israel has lost all moral ground in this conflict."

Buried even deeper--it's the last paragraph--is this detail:

"It's been incredibly difficult to tell the difference between fighters and civilians," said Peter Bouckaert, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch in New York, who evaded Israeli checkpoints to sneak into the camp. "I think it's clear that in the end what actually happened in Jenin will fall somewhere in between what the Palestinians are alleging and what [the Israeli army] claims. But only an independent authority can establish what actually happened."

Even Human Rights Watch, in other words, acknowledges that the Israelis are not totally in the wrong, while the Palestinians have dropped their hyped-up "massacre" charges. And yet the Post leads with the United Nations blasting Israel--a dog-bites-man story if ever there was one.

Of course it's true that the scene from Jenin is, as the Post puts it, "a landscape of wretchedness and destruction," with homes bulldozed and dozens, though apparently not hundreds, of people--likely including some innocents--dead. But the devastation both was necessary and is less extensive than advertised. The Jerusalem Post notes:

"Brig.-Gen. Eyal Shlein, commander of the troops in the Jenin area, stressed that the area where the buildings were destroyed occupies only a 10th of the camp's total area, a radius of 70 meters by 100 meters. All the destroyed buildings were booby-trapped by the Palestinians or used as fortified positions in attacking soldiers, he said.

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/04/19/News/News.47257.html


Both London's Independent and the U.N. manage to prove themselves even more hostile to Israel than the Arabs are. "Israelis Try to Pin Blame for Jenin on Suicide Bombers," reads today's Independent headline. Oh, those crafty Jews, maligning the innocent suicide bombers. The Independent doesn't mention, as the New York Times does, that "Israeli forces in Jenin had caught 10 would-be suicide bombers who had already videotaped their farewell statements."

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=286659

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/19/international/middleeast/19MIDE.html


The Independent also quotes a U.N. official who "said he did not believe the camp had been heavily booby-trapped." Yet the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram carries an interview with an Islamic Jihad bomb maker identified only as Omar, who confirms that they were:

"Of all the fighters in the West Bank we were the best prepared," he says. "We started working on our plan: to trap the invading soldiers and blow them up from the moment the Israeli tanks pulled out of Jenin last month."

Omar and other "engineers" made hundreds of explosive devices and carefully chose their locations.

"We had more than 50 houses booby-trapped around the camp. We chose old and empty buildings and the houses of men who were wanted by Israel because we knew the soldiers would search for them," he said.

"We cut off lengths of mains water pipes and packed them with explosives and nails. Then we placed them about four metres apart throughout the houses--in cupboards, under sinks, in sofas."

http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2002/582/6inv2.htm

Before they finally call him to account?

"One death is a tragedy, one million is a statistic." - Stalin (Sharon)

Israel's government has made a grave mistake. It would not be open to accusations that there was no massacre of Palestinians in any of the West Bank territories. Israel simply should have permited independant journalistic organizations to enter into the areas at their own risk. If they didn't intend to kill innocent citizens then that would have been proven by independant sources. When the incursion is over Israel will be open to accusations of human rights violations. This could have been avoided. Instead, when the truth comes out, all of that which Israel attempted to hide will become obvious. This will cause further instability and possibly indictments in the World Criminal Court for human rights abuses. This sad for a people that have themselves suffered human rights abuses. Israel has not learned from it's past and only wants peace on it's own terms.

This does not excuse the actions of the suicide bombers. I would rather see the Palestinians set up it's own government and act like a soverign country even while it has not yet achieved this status. However, I cannot totally condemn the actions of a desperate people who have not hope and are continuously brutalized under occupation. Let's remember that Israel also used suicide bombers when the British were the occupiers.

The occupation settlers are equally guilty for putting their children in a war zone of the disputed territories where there have never been any resolution.

I believe that in the words of former Senator Mitchell. There will be no peace until both sides are just tired of killing. Otherwise, there will be no peace in the "Holy Land" until Jesus Christ returns.

What you are saying is equivalent to the opinions of those who say the Holocaust never happened. What do you think of those people??

"But the devastation both was necessary and is less extensive than advertised."

Thanks for the laugh.

Is it necessary to argue about what constitutes a massacre?!? Israel used indiscriminate force against the civilian population of Jenin and scores if not hundreds have been killed, that much is clear.

I recomend the interview with N Chomsky on sf.indymedia.org for an understanding of the bigger picture. We live in very dangerous times and the truth is in danger of being lost.

I'm ashamed that the UK government will not condemn Israel for these actions, and that Blair continues to lend uncritical support to Bush for the so-called 'war on terror'. Is it not about time we stopped calling it this and recognised it for what it is!

If we get to the end of 2002 without more Jenins it will be a miracle - I hope someone somewhere will judge the policiticians leading us there.

This now from the same people that danced in the streets on the 11th of September. That alone was enough for me to prove the guilt of this terrorist nation. Our Israeli brothers in arms are waging their own war against terror with a terrorist state. My full support as an American goes to them. Too bad that these people are nothing more than sheep to be manipulated by lies. May thier deaths if autual? be placed on the conciouces of thier blasphemous leader who has lied to them.