Rehov’s new film, “Lies and Tears,” overturns the knee-jerk conclusion that Israel targeted and murdered the journalist in Jenin in May
BACKGROUND ON PIERRE REHOV AND “LIES AND TEARS”
For the past twenty-two years, French filmmaker Pierre Rehov has traveled the conflict zones of the Middle East and produced more than twenty documentaries.
“Suicide Killers,” produced by Rehov in 2006, provided rare access to suicide terrorists in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israeli prisons, and earned him a solid reputation as a credible investigative journalist.
His new documentary “Lies and Tears” examines the death in May 2022 of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, for which the Israeli army was automatically blamed before any investigation was conducted. The elements Rehov uncovered are disturbing, to say the least, and suggest a completely different conclusion.
UNPRECEDENTED CAMPAIGN: Since 1990, 2658 journalists have been killed in the line of duty. None of them has had the media coverage of Shireen Abu Akleh. The well-organized campaign launched by the Palestinian Authority around her death has almost no precedent.
UNFOUNDED ACCUSATION: Assuming that an Israeli soldier was really responsible for the death of the Al Jazeera journalist, the accusation that it was a deliberate shooting is unfounded. The film shows that at such a distance no one could see the “press” sign on Shireen’s bulletproof vest. Palestinian gunmen were firing at Israeli soldiers from all directions.
FALSE WITNESSES: The “witnesses” who were at the scene and first to accuse Israel of murder are claiming to be impartial journalists. They are, in fact, propagandists of the Palestinian Authority, as the film clearly shows.
DISTORTION OF FINDINGS: CNN, The Washington Post and Bellingcat, called on Professor Maher, a forensic specialist and sound analyst, to define the distance between the journalist and the shooter from videos shot at the time of the tragedy, but they distorted his report to accuse the Israeli army. Professor Maher’s analysis, which Rehov also obtained, describes a distance between the sound recorders and the shooter, not between the journalist and the shooter. This “detail” leads to a difference of more than 20 meters which places the shooter further north of the army’s most extreme position. Yet, this critical detail has been glossed over in all the official versions, concluding that Israel is responsible.
Professor Maher’s calculation was made for an M4, a weapon frequently used by Israeli soldiers. But if the bullet was fired from any other weapon with a longer barrel, the distance shortens again and places the shooter more than 40 meters north of the Israeli position.
OMMISSIONS: Witnesses, including one of the “journalists” who was near Shireen Abu Akleh at the time of the tragedy, mention the presence of gunmen in a house not far from them. These testimonies have never been taken up by the media. They describe “snipers,” but the film formally demonstrates that it was impossible for Israeli “snipers” to have been in these positions. There were men shooting at the journalists from the buildings. They could not be Israelis. So, who were they?
EXPERT TESTIMONY: The film gives the floor to high-level international experts, including a French GIGN officer, court-appointed forensic expert Alain Artuso, and physicist Nahum Shahaf. Each of them, according to their expertise, points out several mistakes made by those who accuse the Israeli army.
The conclusions of the film will be taken up by the Shurat Hadin organization, which has opened a complaint before the ICC against Mahmoud Abbas, because he is responsible for the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, which were responsible for the death of Shireen Abu Akleh.
Documentary filmmaker Pierre Rehov says former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Senator Ted Cruz are justified in criticizing the U.S. Department of Justice plan to investigate the killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. Rehov’s new film, “Lies and Tears,” overturns the knee-jerk conclusion that Israel targeted and murdered the journalist in Jenin in May—an unsubstantiated claim that was reported by news organizations worldwide minutes after her death before any evidence was even available.
“Israel conducted a professional, independent investigation and shared it with the Biden administration months ago,” says Rehov. “Why, then, would they announce their own investigation now—if not to placate Israel’s critics on the Hill, reposition America’s alliances, and unravel the progress made in the Middle East by the previous administration?”
“Secretary Pompeo is right when he says that there is ‘an anti-Zionist bias that is very deep inside of the [Biden] administration, in a way that is unproductive not only for Israel but very unproductive for the United States of America.’”
“I also agree with Senator Cruz, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who said that, ‘Joe Biden and his administration view Israel and Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu as political enemies, and so they are responding to them the way they respond to all their political enemies: by unleashing the FBI. Our Israeli allies have, since the very beginning, cooperated closely with the United States in investigating this incident, and the State Department and Defense Departments had already drawn their conclusions,’” says Rehov.
According to Rehov, the logistics of the tragic shooting of Shireen Abu Akleh indicate that she was likely killed by the al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades. “It has never been the policy of Israel to harm journalists, even those who oppose Israel’s policies. That kind of strategy comes straight from the playbook of militants and thugs in the Middle East who have consistently assassinated their opponents. Israel is a strong democracy that upholds freedom of speech and freedom of the press.”
