Mohammad Bakri the Director of Jenin Jenin is Acquitted of a Libel Suit

On the 28 of July at the Left Bank offices in Tel Aviv, a party for thirty years of artistic and political activities of Mohammad Bakri took place. Another reason to celebrate was a recent decision by a judge that ruled that Bakri cannot be sued for making the movie Jenin Jenin. Bakri is a well known Palestinian actor a director who acted in many movies. After producing Jenin Jenin, however, a documentary of interviews with residents of the refugee camp Jenin after an Israeli invasion in 2002, Bakri has been blacklisted by the movie industry in Israel and sued by a group of Israeli soldiers. Jenin Jenin shows through the testimony of Palestinian that the Occupation of Jenin was a war crime. The Movie was banned by the Israeli state censor on the ground that it is one sided and does not take into account the viewpoint of the occupying army. It was allowed to be screened after an appeal to the Israeli High Court, this although three Israeli movies describing the attack on Jenin from the Israeli military point were aired on two TV channels.

Bakri and Israeli cinemas that showed the film were sued by a group of Israeli soldiers who participated in the Jenin invasion. Recently, an Israeli judge has ruled that although the movie has presented untrue information its accusation were directed at a whole population and not at specific people, and therefore specific individuals cannot sue Bakri. The judge has also ruled that Bakri has not brought to court any of the Palestinians who commented in the movie to testify, or human rights organization to back up the assertion in the movie. And that therefore the movie is untrue. But many have wondered how Bakri was supposed to bring into court Jenin residents who are living in an occupy territory and are not allowed to enter Israel, and might be afraid of an Israeli retaliation. Furthermore, Amnesty international and Human Right Watch has written extensive reports on what happened during the siege of Jenin in 2002 that details many of the stories that were describe in the movie. Homan Rights Watch, for example, has also accused the Israeli military of committing war crimes. Some of the incidents described in the report and the movie were of houses being demolish with residents still inside, and helicopters firing missiles into civilian’s houses. 4000 people, more than a quarter of the population of the camp, become homeless due to the demolishing of their houses by the occupying Israeli army.

Bakri states after the ruling that the movie was an attempt to give voice to the resident of Jenin, to allow them to speak about the assault on the camp. The soldiers who sued Bakri claimed that they were just trying to defend their homeland, not to assault a refuge camp. But Bakri in an interview responded that “They are not fighting for their homeland. They are fighting for the settlements. They are fighting to defend the occupation. They mustn’t be there. They mustn’t be in the West Bank. They mustn’t be in Gaza. This land was occupied in 1967” and that “this is not the right way also to fight the terrorists, by this, by demolishing the whole houses and by that very cruel invasion.”
Bakry has recently finished another movie called “since you left”. The movie is personal documentary describing Bakri’s harassments and experiences in Israel since making Jenin Jenin.

Israeli soldier testimony on what actually happened in Jenin, by one of those who did it and are proud of it.
http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/fd807e46661e3689852570d00069e918/3ba59a4aea94ec5085256c680057ee04!OpenDocument

Israel and the Occupied Territories: Shielded from scrutiny: IDF violations in Jenin and Nablus

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE15/143/2002

Jenin: IDF Military Operations

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2002/israel3/