Zionist denials

Zionist Denials are cases in which Zionists have deliberately and falsely denied actions which have later been pinned on them. In a few cases, the state of Israel has admitted culpability, liability and/or has paid compensation for incidents they originally denied.

Included in this category are cases in which Israel has made statements of exoneration which cannot be tested because they refused access or failed to assist investigators. This is broadly similar to the reporting of incidents such as Tiananmen Square where the state party has acted in a non-transparent fashion and has allowed a presumption of guilt to be widely (though not necessarily generally) held.

There are some other cases, in which Israel has paid compensation but not admitted culpability eg the USS Liberty incident. On that occasion, both parties agreed to describe this action as a case of friendly fire, an accident.

Lastly, there are a few cases where Zionist policies have been denied but later accepted (eg Transfer) or fraudulent accusations of "Blood-Libel" have been made or death-tolls changed in a suspicious fashion.

Incidents post-2000

2008/9 Gaza Massacre, Operation Cast Lead

All entry to Gaza was blocked during the action, and access since has been difficult, though many observers have succeeded. The investigations made by some bodies have not been able to question potential Israeli participants.

White Phosphorus use in Gaza

Initially denied and then later admitted by Israel.

Amnesty Report

Ban Ki-Moon ordered a UN Headquarters Board of Inquiry led by Ian Martin to independently investigate the nine most serious attacks on UN personnel and property. Israel was faulted in seven of the nine cases, and Hamas was found guilty in one of the nine. One of those included an attack near a UNRWA school in Jabalia that the UN says killed between 30 and 40 people, while the IDF says 12 - most of them militants - died. The report accused Israel of "gross negligence" and also stated that allegations that militants had fired from within U.N. premises "were untrue, continued to be made after it ought to have been known that they were untrue, and were not adequately withdrawn and publicly regretted." The report confirmed that Hamas militants fired from near the school and then ran beside it. Ban plans to seek up to $11 million in damages from Israel.

2006 Lebanon

Use of White Phosphorus

Initially denied and later admitted by Israel. (A further allegation that Depleted Uranium ammunition was used has been rejected by the UN according to one report, and doubts have been cast on the scientific testing first presented as evidence).

2002/2003 Death of activists

Rachel Corrie

The Corries were told the report on her death was secret until they found that the Israeli government was covertly distributing it among members of the US Congress to prevent an independent investigation.

James Miller

Compensation paid.

Tom Hurndall

The family's insistence eventually "forced the IDF to investigate and to acknowledge that Tom had been wearing the fluorescent jacket of a non-combatant and had not been caught in Palestinian crossfire" as claimed. In 2004 Taysir Hayb, an IDF soldier, was convicted of Tom's manslaughter and sentenced to eight years in prison. The army investigation had said that a sniper in a watchtower fired at a man wearing camouflage clothes and carrying a gun.

Iain Hook

Head of reconstruction, inside the UNRWA compound of Jenin. According to the Times "The army falsely claimed he was shot while standing among Palestinian gunmen in the UN compound. Israel paid compensation to Hook's family but attached confidentiality clauses which suppressed a public admission of culpability for what some of the UN worker's colleagues have called "cold-blooded murder"". and "All three families [Hook, Turndall, Miller] have accused the authorities of fabricating evidence, suppressing investigations and covering-up deliberate killings."

2002 Assault on Jenin

c. April 5th to April 11th. All humanitarian aid and journalists refused entry until late on 14th and was very restricted until 18th and further endangered by shootings for months afterwards. Humanitarian relief was hampered by explosives (UN report quotes the government of Jordan saying that the explosives had been laid by IDF, the IDF claims Palestinians did so). EU equipment to defuse bombs was refused entry for two weeks. The UN investigation team was refused entry to Israel/the West Bank.

Incidents before 2000

1967 War

Israel initially claimed that it had come under attack, though all sources later agree it carried out a pre-emptive strike.

1960s Israel's development of nuclear arsenal

Still never officially accepted, but all sources accept the evidence presented eg testimony of the technician Vanunu who had worked at Dimona and whistle-blew to the Sunday Times. Estimates of the capability range from around 70 to 400 war-heads, with delivery by plane, missile and submarine.

1954 Qibya

Ben-Gurion blamed

1954 Lavon Affair

Medals for the surviving perpetrators of the fire-bomb attacks in Cairo were handed out in 2005.

1948 Tantura

While Israel rejects the claims made in the doctoral thesis, no investigation has been carried out on the mass-grave known to be under a carpark and the number of victims (either 70-80 or around 250) buried there being in doubt.

Pre-Israel actions

Some pre-Israel actions were condemned by the Yishuv but were later admitted to have been carried out under their control/instigation. There are only a small number which were admitted before May 1948.

1948 Deir Yassin massacre

5 weeks before the Independence of Israel. Condemned by the Yishuv at the time. Shortly thereafter it was discovered that it was the Palmach that had actually overcome the small number of defenders and allowed the massacre of the village. Official denial/re-writing continued in some quarters until at least the 1970s. A ravine where some of the bodies are thought to lie has been filled with refuse.

1946 Bombing of the King David Hotel

Denied and condemned at the time. Binyamin Netanyahu attended a two-day 60th anniversary celebration in July 2006, with a tour of the hotel given by one of the surviving perpetrators.

1944 assassination of Lord Moynes

Denied and condemned at the time, the bodies of the perpetrators were brought back to Israel and buried in honour on Mount Herzel in 1975, provoking outrage in the British Parliament. James Callaghan, then Foreign Secretary and later Prime Minister, ordered a formal protest "to make it clear to the Israeli government that the British government very much regretted that an act of terrorism should be honoured in this way."

1940 sinking of the Patria

Death of over 200 Jews. Denied and condemned (?) at the time, in 195? one of the perpetrators went public and explained the previously unknown actions of the Haganah.

Denial of Zionist Policies

Denial of Transfer

Large numbers of the supporters of Israel, including the most prominent (Alan Dershowitz, Melanie Phillips, Daniel Piper) deny that "transfer" (a name replaced by "ethnic cleansing" in 1990 for most people after events in Bosnia) was always intended by the founders of Israel. They claim that "peace" between the parties, living in the same places as they are now, is a realistic option and the aim of Israel.

Rabbi Chaim Simons (a transferist and supporter of full annexation of the West Bank) lists (in a lecture in 1990 at the Israel Center in Jerusalem) many of the pre-1948 claims that transfer was necesary and continues: "As we shall see, this phenomenon of restricting transfer plans to diaries, private correspondence and closed meetings, was not the prerogative of Herzl, "but has been emulated by many other Zionist leaders."

Blood-libel allegations

In many cases, allegations of making blood-libels or general anti-semitism have been used against those testifying against actions of Israelis or pre-Israelis. In some cases, the allegations are, or have later been found to be, if not proven, at least well evidenced.

1948 - Deir Yassin

eg the book "Blood Libel at Deir Yassin" a book by Uri Milstein.

Interference with the historical record

In some cases, Israel has claimed to be using Palestinian sources for total death-counts and the revised figures have been carried by reliable sources but it has proved difficult or impossible to find the primary evidence eg the death-toll at Deir Yassin reduced from 254 to around 107, toll at Jenin 2002 reduced from "around 500" to 56.