Israel Bans Movie on West Bank Offensive

Israel’s Film Ratings Board was barraged with criticism Wednesday after it banned a documentary on an Israeli offensive in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin for portraying its soldiers as war criminals.

The board said it decided to ban “Jenin, Jenin,” by Israeli Arab actor and director Mohammed Bakri, for a “distorted presentation of events in the guise of democratic truth which could mislead the public.”

“The public ... could mistakenly think that Israeli soldiers are perpetrating war crimes systematically and intentionally,” the board said, calling the work a “one-sided propaganda film.”

It was the first time in 15 years that the ratings board had censored a movie.

Bakri’s film describes an Israeli offensive in the camp in April through the eyes of its residents. More than 50 Palestinians, including civilians and combatants, and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed during the raid, launched after a series of suicide bombings in Israel.

“It is a real shame for me because it shows that democracy in Israel is not reserved for all of its citizens,” Bakri said.

He added that he would appeal to the Israeli Supreme Court.

Israeli media commentators decried the censorship.

“The ratings board -- and the cable companies which also decided to pull the plug on the film -- consider the Israeli public ... to be complete idiots incapable of judging a cinematic work for themselves,” media commentator Raanan Shaked wrote in the Yediot Aharonot daily.

“Jenin, Jenin,” filmed several weeks after the raid, shows the destruction of a large swath of the camp by Israeli bulldozers. It quotes residents saying that soldiers had committed war crimes, including shooting at an elderly man and burying people alive as their homes were demolished.

Soldiers who served in the campaign accused some of the residents interviewed of fabricating events.

Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have said Israeli soldiers committed war crimes during the operation but rejected Palestinian claims that a massacre took place. Israeli officials refused to cooperate with a planned U.N. inquiry into the operation, and it was dropped.