Zionist denials

Zionist Denials are cases in which Israel itself (or in many cases Zionists acting independently) have deliberately and falsely denied actions which Israel or others have later admitted (or where most credible accounts blame Israel or Zionists)..

In some of these cases the state of Israel has denied liability but then later admitted culpability, liability and/or has paid compensation. In some of these cases Israel has paid compensation but not admitted intent. On the USS Liberty the injured party has, at least officially, agreed to describe the incident as a case of accident ("friendly fire").

There is also denial or mis-reporting of Israeli massacres, with death-tolls reduced in often suspicious circumstances.

Also included in the category of "denials" are cases in which Israel has obstructed 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 also denials of Zionist policy. Some were once denied but are universally accepted (eg the policy of "Transfer", what we now know as "Ethnic Cleansing") while others such as the Judaization of Jerusalem and the total annexation of the West Bank are still officially denied. In other cases eg "from the Nile to the Euphrates" the policy is denied while still widely being propounded by persons who are carrying it out.

Naturally, denials are often linked to fraudulent accusations of "Blood-Libel" and antisemitism.

Incidents post-2000

2010 Flotilla

First use of violence

Veteran war correspondent Ron Ben Yishai told Ynet that the commandos were under instruction to verbally convince activists to give up whereas Dror Feiler on board the Sofia testified that he had tried to talk with the soldiers but was beaten up. The first weapons to be used were said to be paintball guns though several witnesses attested to the attack on the flotilla beginning on the Mavi Marmara with stun grenades, tear gas, and rubber-coated bullets. Film footage shows firing from zodiacs before the ship was boarded.

Kuwaiti lawyer Mubarak Al-Mutawa said: "Israeli commandos started shooting from the air without warning. They killed a number of volunteers even before landing aboard the ship". Former US Marine and Gulf War veteran Ken O’Keefe said that two activists were already dead when he helped to disarm the first commandos that boarded the Mavi Marmara. Journalist Muna Shester said: "a helicopter deployed men in black, armed from head to toe, who asked no questions and killed two Turkish men immediately".

Violence on other boats

On 1 June 2010 in answer to a question from Jon Snow on Channel 4 News Mark Regev, spokesman for the prime minister of Israel replied "There were six interceptions yesterday, six interceptions. All done by the Israeli Navy, all, five of them were done peaceably without violence without harm to soul to people"

This is dramatically different from the stories as collected by "a review of media sources" which claims that on MV Eleftheri Mesogeio people were attacked by rubber-coated bullets and tasers, handcuffed and mistreated; on MV Challenger 1 one woman had her head banged on the deck and trod on, another was hit on the nose by a projectile, while other passengers were tasered, dragged around the deck and hit with rifle butts; on MV Sofia one person was tasered, one shot with a rubber-coated bullet and one beaten up. On MV Sfendoni - one man was shot with a rubber-coated bullet, beaten in the groin and the head and kicked on the deck, another was thrown to the deck twice and then kicked or hit on the head, and the captain suffered a punctured ear drum along with neck and back injuries. Tasers were also used. A witness to the unprovoked violence on the Mavi Marmara was former U.S. Ambassador Ed Peck. The Irish Ambassador to Israel said that four of the five Irish prisoners held in Be’er Sheva prison had been ‘roughed up’ in one form or another.

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.

UN Board of Inquiry

A UN Report report into Israeli attacks and damage to seven of their buildings in Gaza 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." Israel paid $10.5 million to the UN for the damage it had caused to seven UN buildings, reported to be the first time [1] they've ever done this.

2006 Lebanon

Use of White Phosphorus

Initially denied and later admitted by Israel. A further allegation that Depleted Uranium ammunition had been fired was rejected by the UN, amid doubts as to the scientific testing of samples.

2004 accusations against Peter Hansen

In October 2004, Israel demanded that Danish diplomat Peter Hansen, UNRWA's head, be removed from office, based on UAV video documenting what they claimed was a group of Palestinian militants loading a rocket into a UN-marked vehicle.

Hansen responded that the footage was of UNRWA crew members carrying a stretcher into the UN ambulance, stating "While the quality of the video clip is poor, its analysis shows beyond the shadow of a doubt that the object carried and thrown into the vehicle is not/cannot be a Qassam rocket". Moreover, Hansen accused Israel of making "baseless accusations" amounting to "malicious propaganda" that endangered UN lives. A team of investigators sent by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to look into the Israeli claims determined them to be false.

The Israeli authorities initially dismissed UNRWA's reaction, blaming Hansen for being "anti-Israeli". Later Israeli General Yisrael Ziv recognized having doubts over whether the object was a rocket launcher or a stretcher. Eventually, the Israeli military changed some of its earlier statements and conceded the possibility that the object could have indeed been a stretcher, but did not offer the apology Hansen had demanded.

A short time later, Jan 2005, Peter Hansen's contract with UNRWA, that he'd held since 1996, was terminated to widespread alarm by NGOs in Gaza. The US was the only member of the advisory board opposing Mr Hansen's reappointment, a UN official told Reuters.

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

James Henry Dominic Miller died on the 2nd May 2003, allegedly killed by a single shot fired by Bedouin Arab Captain Hib al-Heib while filming a documentary in Rafah. The Israeli Military Police investigation into Miller's death closed on 9 March 2005 with an announcement that the soldier suspected of firing the shot would not be indicted as they could not establish that his shot was responsible, though he would be disciplined for violating the rules of engagement and for changing his account of the incident. On 6 April 2006, the inquest jury in London declared that Miller had been murdered. The Attorney General Peter Goldsmith sent a formal request to his Israeli counterpart in June 2007 for prosecution proceedings to be enacted within six weeks against the soldier responsible for firing the shot. The requests were ignored by the Israeli government and prosecution proceedings were never enacted. On 1 February 2009 it was reported that James Miller's family have accepted a £1.5 million payout from Israel.

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

1985 Jonathan Pollard

U.S. Navy analyst Jonathan Pollard was sentenced to life imprisonment in the United States in 1985 for passing military secrets to Israel.

Israel promised this would not happen again, eg "As with Pollard, this (Lavon Affair) was a rogue operation," David Kimche, a former Mossad deputy chief, said in 2005 "We knew never to go down that road again."

But in March 2008, another Israeli spy, 84 year old Ben-Ami Kadish was arrested on charges that he had spied for Israel for 20 years (ie recruited not long after Pollard was sentenced to life imprisonment). Former head of Mossad, Labor MK Danny Yatom told Army Radio: "I think what primarily bothers the Americans is the feeling that Israel didn't tell them the whole truth two decades ago, in 1985, when the Pollard affair exploded". and added: "The Americans asked if there are additional people that Israel ran or are running in the United States. The answer, to the best of my knowledge, was always no".

1967 War

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

USS Liberty Incident

While many Israel-firsters continue to insist that this was an accident, the argument has largely turned against them. A turning point in the debate may have been the article in the Chicago Tribune of 2nd Oct 2007 which, as the Wikipedia says contains "numerous previously unreported quotes from former military personnel with first-hand knowledge of the incident. Many of these quotes directly contradict the US National Security Agency's position that it never intercepted the communications of the attacking Israeli pilots, claiming that not only did transcripts of those communications exist, but also that it showed the Israelis knew they were attacking an American naval vessel."

Typical of the quotes in the Tribune is one from the late Dwight Porter, American ambassador to Lebanon during the Six-Day War, who told friends and family members that he had been shown English-language transcripts of Israeli pilots talking to their controllers. Close friend, William Chandler, former head of the Trans-Arabian Pipe Line Co., said Porter recalled one of the pilots protesting, "But sir, it's an American ship - I can see the flag!" To which the ground control responded, "Never mind; hit it!".

A fuller description of this incident is carried by Wikispooks here, including a unique section on the "Reliable Sources" at which it is claimed that these sources "all say that Israel knew what it was doing".

Execution of POWs

In 1995 the mass graves of up to 1,000 unarmed Egyptian civilians and prisoners of war were discovered outside El-Arish and the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Jewish Telegraph Agency, and many other respected press organs both in the U.S. and Israel reported that IDF veterans had admitted that there had been mass-murders during the 1967 War. Deputy Foreign Minister, Eli Dayan even offered compensation to the victims families in 1995, but explained that Israel was unable to pursue those responsible due to the statute of limitations.

In 2001, James Bamford published a book on the National Security Agency called "Body of Secrets" and in one chapter mentioned the USS Liberty Incident, surmising that the motive was to conceal the 1967 massacre reported in 1995.

Bamford's book resulted in a new spate of denial, Michael Oren wrote that one of the witnesses (Israeli reporter Gabriel Bron, a former IDF soldier) told him "The one hundred and fifty POWs were not shot, and there were no mass murders" but that the they were helped by the Israeli soldiers who "gave them water, and in most cases just sent them in the direction of the Suez Canal." Oren had more to say about Bamford, and presented a second piece of Zionist Denial "there are a lot of reasons to question Bamford's credibility, starting with his rather curious reading of Middle Eastern history. For example, Bamford says Israel initiated hostilities against Syria and Jordan, when it happened the other way around."

Steve Aftergood also denied the massacre in the July 17, 2001 issue of Secrecy News.

A further mass grave of 30 Egyptian soldiers was found in the Sinai peninsula in 2008.

1960s Israel's development of nuclear arsenal

Israel continues to operate a policy of secrecy, refusing to confirm or deny that it is a nuclear armed power. However, all media 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.

Israel is widely thought to be planning a form of deterrence known as the "Samson Option", whereby it attacks other nations, including the US, all over the world if it is threatened by destruction. The Wikipedia version of the article is just a shadow, a much fuller version of an article written correctly to Wikipedia standards is here.

1954 Qibya

Ben-Gurion blamed

1954 Lavon Affair

For years, Israel "denied involvement" in attacks on US and UK facilities in Cairo and Alexandria, which they had intended to be "blamed on local insurgents [and] discredit Nasser's rule"

The denials finally came to an end 51 years after the attacks (2005) when medals for the surviving perpetrators of the fire-bomb were handed out by Israeli President Moshe Katsav. More details at False Flag Attacks.

1950 Baghdad bombings

The April 1950 bombings that helped panic most of the 150,000 Jews of Iraq to leave for Israel are still denied by the Zionists. But even the WP article on "Jews in Iraq" lists many credible sources who say the bombings were indeed Zionist. See False Flag Attacks.

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

Supporters of Israel (including many of the most prominent such as Alan Dershowitz, Melanie Phillips, Daniel Piper) in the West deny that "transfer" (ie "ethnic cleansing") 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 lived in Kiryat Arba, the notorious Hebron settlement which may have displaced 30,000 Palestinians. He believed in ethnic cleansing and full annexation of the West Bank to Israel. In 1990 he listed 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."

Denial of the Zionist flag

There is no proof that the two lines on the Zionist flag are intended to symbolise "from the Nile to the Euphrates", even though the policy itself is widely documented.

Blood-libel allegations

In many cases, when allegations have been made against Zionists, the critics have been accused of making blood-libels or of general anti-semitism. In some cases, the allegations against the Zionists have either been proved true or found to be very well evidenced.

2009 - Organ harvesting affair

When a Swedish newspaper broke the organ-harvesting story, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister demanded that Sweden condemn the piece, compared it to the Dreyfus Affair and compared Sweden's response to its "silence" during the Holocaust. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "echoed colleagues in comparing the article to medieval "blood libels," which alleged Jews used the blood of Christian babies in religious rites" and curbs were placed on Swedish journalists.

In fact, it was an old story - Dr Yehuda Hiss, Israeli chief pathologist at Abu Kabir, had been exposed for selling body parts in 2000 (by Israeli newspaper, Yediot Aharonot), was on tape talking about freely taking organs at the time, was in possession of numerous organs when searched in 2002 and had been reprimanded in 2005.

In October 2011, a Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics press release claimed that Israel holds tens of bodies of male and female Palestinians killed during the second Intifada as well as hundreds of corpses of others killed in previous years.

2000 - Muhammed al-Durrah

Mohammed al-Durrah

Great effort and expenditure have been expended on this case by defenders of Israel trying to prove that Mohammed al-Durrah was shot by Palestinians (or is not dead) and that the famous picture is a blood-libel. Over ten years later, the cameraman and the head of the television channel, France24, are still being pursued through the courts in an attempt to destroy their careers.

Project Censored claim (based on figures from the Israeli NGO, Btselem and citing "Remember the Children") "In the first three-and-a-half months ... Israeli forces killed 84 Palestinian children ... During this period, not one Israeli child was killed. Not one suicide bombing against Israelis occurred". It is known that some Israelis and some French Jews are unhappy with the denial. Other Israeli newspaper comment has suggested that the whole discussion is "tasteless questions designed to divert attention from the truly important issues ... Israel is responsible for killing more than 850 Palestinian children and teenagers since al-Dura was killed" and that some investigators have an "eccentric obsession" with their denial.

Wikipedia treatment

The Wikipedia article is largely taken up with a discussion (often positive) of the two denialist Zionist narratives. After years of debate an apparent change of heart at the Wikipedia decided that there should be mention of the widely commented linkage between the photo and the October 2000 lynching of two Israeli army reservists in Ramallah and the beheading of Daniel Pearl in Feb 2002.

1948 - Deir Yassin

There have been numerous attempts to deny there was a massacre at Deir Yassin, including some by Israel itself, and to smear the critics with accusations of blood-libel. The Wikipedia even suggests a book entitled "Blood Libel at Deir Yassin" by Uri Milstein.

Interference with the historical record

In some cases, Israel has claimed to be quoting Palestinian sources for the death-tolls of massacres, and these totals are both much smaller than believed at the time and impossible to confirm.