Last night I was watching the Israeli news, and the IDF (Israel's army) released a video of a fake Palestinian funeral in Jenin.

Using a small plane (drone) without pilots, Israel was able to film how the Palestinians tried to stage a fake funeral to show as many casualties as possible were buried in Jenin.

"In the tape you see the fake 'corpse' being wrapped and then lying down on a stretcher. The stretcher bearers are not particularly adept and you can see him fall off several times.

During the course of the funeral the 'corpse' was dropped and the 'dead' Palestinian got up from the ground scaring many of the Palestinian marchers who were not cognizant of the deception."

To watch the 3 minute video, click here.
For the full article, see below.

Israel screens fake Palestinian funeral for reporters
http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=11802
http://www.idf.il/english/news/funeral.stm
Video distributed by http://www.mideasttruth.com/

Main Points of Briefing given by Colonel Miri Eizen about phoney Jenin funeral and situation in Bethlehem and Jenin.
IDF Spokesperson 2 May 2002
[Pictures at http://www.idf.il/english/news/funeral.stm ]

Jenin
Today, 2.5.02, the IDF is exposing for the first time footage filmed from above, and in it, an on-film testimony of the Palestinian's preparations for UN committee's visit to Jenin. In this segment, you see a staged funeral that the Palestinians organized in order to increase the number of the Palestinians killed in Jenin. This footage was filmed three days ago, on April 28, 2002 at around 19:00 and it is very clear and easy to see that the body has apparently "resurrected" and that the whole funeral is actually one big charade.

Bethlehem
During the past 24 hours there were few fire exchanges around the area of the Church of Nativity. In is important to point out that fire exchanges were not aimed towards the church itself, but only to the area close to it. Until toady, 80 people have left the church alive, among them people of the clergy, children, civilians, a small number of wanted suspects and five bodies of wanted suspects. We do not have an accurate number of how many people are still inside the church, but our estimate is that there are several dozens. In addition, last night at midnight, a fire broke out in the northern tower in the area of the church. We believe that the ones responsible for setting the fire were the Palestinians. In recent weeks the Palestinians have twice set fire to the same tower, because the tower serves as very high viewpoint that is easy to photograph from a far away distance, but we are still checking the possibility of the fire was started by one of our own light-bombs.

In any event, we do not wish to harm the church in any way.

Questions & Answers:

Q: In your opinion, what is the meaning of this footage?
A: The footage speaks for itself. It is clear that the Palestinians are faking a funeral to increase the numbers of their killed. They tried to falsify evidence in preparation for the committee by executing a fake ceremony, carrying the "body" and filming the entire process. The funeral took place between the area that was destroyed in Jenin and the cemetery and people indeed joined the funeral, but when the person fell from the stretcher the participants were frightened, thinking the body had returned to life.

Q: The president said that there are 10 wanted Palestinians in the church, could you respond to this?
A: We do not know the exact number, however we do have an estimate. In any case, it is important to separate terrorists who are highly active from terrorists who are only moderately active and terrorists who are hardly active. We know for a fact that there are 10 terrorists in the churchwho are highly active and have blood on their hands.

Q: Were there any other funerals?
A: Even before the filming we knew that the Palestinians were holding exhibition funerals but no one believed our statements regarding them. Now we have filmed proof of one of the funerals. Several other testimonies were filmed and are being investigated, we will publicize them when we can.

Q: What is your response to the claims that the IDF did not provide humanitarian aid?
A: The IDF tried to provide as much humanitarian aid as was possible. I know that on 05.04.02, 07.04.02 and on 08.04.02 we received requests from humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross to allow the evacuation of the wounded and the bodies, but due to the firing in the region and our not wanting to place the innocent in danger, the humanitarian aid was delayed and at times canceled.

It is important to make note that we allowed humanitarian aid on many occasions, such as on 04.04.02 and 06.04.02. Throughout the past days we have treated some 25 cases: We evacuated a pregnant woman to the hospital in Nazareth, we evacuated people to hospitals throughout Israel and provided electricity for the hospital in Jenin. Besides the incident on 05.04.02 in which we did not allow any humanitarian aid to enter, we allowed humanitarian aid passage on all other days.

Q: What is the degree of damage caused in Jenin?
A: 130 buildings were completely destroyed by the IDF in Jenin, which is 10 percent of all buildings in the refugee camp. The destroyed region in Jenin is slightly larger than a soccer stadium. It is important to make note that many of the destroyed buildings were rigged with explosives by the Palestinians and their destruction prevented a serious disaster and the death of many of our soldiers.

Q: Was the footage shown meant for intelligence or for IDF explanation and information?
A: We do not send a documentary crew to the territories for IDF explanation and information. The tape was filmed for Intelligence use and it proves what we already knew, but could not provide filmed proof of. We use it also as an informative tool as it is proof undeniable of an exhibition funeral held by the Palestinians, and it is important that it be seen.

Posted by David Melle
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