Senior international media and Palestinian Authority spokespeople are continuing to cite the Beitunia Pallywood video as “proof” that IDF soldiers killed two Palestinian teenagers during Nakba Day riots two weeks ago.
Several Jewish Press writers and others, most notably the blogger Elder of Ziyon, have debunked the supposed footage of the Pallywood production near the Bitunia checkpoint on May 15.
Evidence that the deaths were faked includes versions of the “security camera” tapes that clearly show that the IDF fired a rubber bullet when viewed simultaneously with the CNN video.
This is in addition to clearly fake and bloodless collapse of the “victims” despite claims that the bullets ripped through them front to back (or the other way around).
What is really a giveaway, are the trial runs that failed to produce the results the Pallywood directors wanted the first time around.
In this video, you can see a failed attempt to fake an injury for the cameras:
Nevertheless, CNN, the New York Times and Palestinian rights groups like Defence of Children-Palestine and B’tselem continue to show the video as if it reflects an actual attack on unarmed Palestinian protesters.
CNN and the Times focused their discussion on whether the youths were shot with live or rubber bullets.
But even Haaretz conclusively admitted that there is little or no evidence that IDF soldiers used live fire to control the Nakba Day clashes. The left-wing paper was forced to admit that, at best, the soldiers shot rubber bullets at the “victims”.
Furthermore Nouwarah’s father (who, for some reason, does not look terribly distraught just a few days after the killing, and who is not sitting at home in the traditional Muslim mourning tent, a custom similar to the Jewish Shiva laws) shows what Watson describes as a “bloody backpack”.
But the backpack does not look particularly bloody. Furthermore, the small, neat “bullet hole” in the bag looks rather more like a pencil or pen poked a hole, rather than a live bullet raged through the bag.
Still, the Times and CNN seized on the IDF’s suspension of a Communications Unit soldier, who supposedly fired the rubber bullet.
The IDF has made it clear that the soldier was suspended because he was unauthorized to fire the rubber-bullets, and not because he shot live fire.
But NY Times correspondent Robert Mackey cited that the soldier shot at the boy with “what proved to be a fatal gunshot wound,” with no mention of the fact that even the left-wing Haaretz could not avoid: “The CNN video clip showed a non-combat soldier, who had accompanied his comrades on the mission, firing what appeared to be a rubber bullet during the incident.”
Ultimately, more questions than answers remain about the Times, CNN, B’tselem another international groups that have promoted this video and the story surrounding it. Why have they relied on Palestinian accounts to verify the video and their claims? Why haven’t they sought out independent, international experts to verify Palestinian claims?
And finally, perhaps the most important question that needs to be asked is this: If two Arab teenagers are actually dead, then who actually killed them and when? It clearly wasn’t the IDF in that Pallywood video, which leaves open the strong possibility that it was the Palestinian Authority, in order to create a story.
And that is something that needs investigation.