“Four Corners” Fudges Footage

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Feb. 10, 2014 “Four Corners” documentary on alleged widespread abuse and even brutal torture of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities has clearly manipulated footage in at least one instance to downplay the involvement of children in violence.

Thus, at around 33 minutes into the “Stone Cold Justice” broadcast, reporter John Lyons describes the case of a boy whom he identifies as Islam Dar Ayyoub, and whom soldiers photographed in the middle of the night and then arrested in a night-time raid three days later and interrogated. (Islam’s full name is Islam Dar Ayyoub al-Tamimi.)

After discussing Islam’s arrest, Lyons reports:

Later, police come for Islam’s nine-year-old brother, Karim.

The clear implication is that young Karim was detained without any provocation or cause.

From our earlier analysis of the January 2011 detainment of Karim al-Tamimi, we know that the beginning of the full footage shows the boy throwing a rock at an Israeli military vehicle. The sound of the rock hitting the vehicle is clearly heard. At that point, the troops stop the van, get out, and chase Karim.

“Four Corners'” decision to cut the footage of 11-year-old Karim throwing a rock is consistent with the broadcast’s overall theme: Palestinian children and adults alike are merely non-violent victims, and not particularly responsible for having any role in the conflict. For example, Lyons falsely depicts the weekly violent clashes at Nabi Saleh as “non-violent”:

It quickly becomes clear that what the authorities really want is information about the non-violent protest movement in the town [Nabi Saleh], including Bassem Tamimi.

Yet, as the New York Times reported about Islam’s interrogation, and the nature of the Nabi Saleh clashes:

The young man, who seemed eager to please his interrogators, described how village youths were organized into nine “brigades,” each assigned tasks like throwing stones, blocking roads and hurling unexploded tear-gas canisters back at the soldiers.

Moreover, according to a report in Ynet, Palestinian activists pay youths in Nabi Saleh and nearby villages to throw rocks at soldiers.

Bassem Tamimi’s own daughter A’hd, 11, has taken an active role in the violent confrontations, for which she was honored by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

And yet, Lyons completely ignores the role of Palestinian adults, including Bassem Tamimi, who have encouraged children to participate in violent confrontations. Bassem once told New York Times Magazine “Our sign is the stone.”

Casting Bassem into the role of nonviolent victim, the elder Tamimi says on camera:

We reject all type of terrorists around the world. We are against harming the human being life for any reason, but we are struggling for our right to live in peace and to build a state of peace for everyone and we ask our enemy to remove the occupation.