Report: Al Jazeera Airs False Testimony on IDF Child Killing
Elena Zakusilo on Lie Detector
Ynet reports:
The Qatari-based Al Jazeera TV network aired an investigative report last week showing an Israeli-Ukrainian woman who alleged that she murdered civilians and children while serving in the IDF.
The woman, Elena Zakusilo, did volunteer for the IDF and served in a junior administrative position, but her testimony, which was proven to be false shortly after it came out, was taken from a Ukrainian TV show called Lie Detector and aired in November 2013. . .
The Lie Detector host follows up by asking whether she killed people. She responds “yes,” and the lie detector on the show determines she is speaking the truth.
“The first time I killed was difficult for me. I threw the weapon, and said I wasn’t going anywhere. But I went,” she elaborates.
The host then asks whether she was willing to return to service in the Israeli army and to killing its enemies, and whether she was asked to kill children. She responds in the affirmative to both questions. When asked how many people she killed, she says she doesn’t know.
Zakusilo’s story was refuted in late 2013. At the time, the story caused outrage among the Muslim community in Ukraine, leading Israel to examine the matter with the IDF, eventually learning Zakusilo was lying.
The findings were transferred to Ukrainian authorities. At the same time, the Ukrainian security services conducted their own examination of the matter, which found in December of that year that Zakusilo was in fact lying on live television.
“Elena Zakusilo did not participate in military confrontations, including between Lebanon and Israel,” the Ukranian security services said at the time. “Everything she said on Lie Detector does not conform to reality. Her answers on the show were given based on a script prepared by the main editor of the TV show.”
Then-Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor examined the matter, finding that while Zakusilo did serve in the IDF, she had a junior administrative position and was never involved in the kind of combat activities she described.
See also: Al Jazeera English Corrects: Haifa Not in ‘Northern Occupied Palestine’
More from SNAPSHOTS
The Media Misses the Palestinian Crackdown on Palestinian ‘Journalists’
August 23, 2017
Majid Faraj, the director of the PA's General Intelligence Service The Palestinian Authority (PA) has been imprisoning and harassing Palestinian journalists. And many major U.S. outlets have failed to cover the repression. The PA’s General [...]
Palestinian Dictator Abbas Congratulates North Korean Dictator Jong-Un
August 18, 2017
Associated Press (AP) photo Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas recently congratulated and praised President Kim Jong-Un of North Korea. The AP account of the incident, reported in only a few American Websites, was ignored by [...]
Iran Increases Military Spending and the Media Fumbles
August 15, 2017
IRGC members Iranian lawmakers voted to increase military spending, while chanting “Death to America,” on Aug. 13, 2017. Many major U.S. news outlets ignored the event, while others offered incomplete reporting. Iran’s parliament voted to [...]
The Washington Post and The Case of the Missing Abu Jihad
August 14, 2017
The Washington Post continues to neglect internal Palestinian affairs. Six-months after he was appointed deputy to Fatah head and Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas, a man named Mahmoud al-Aloul has yet to be featured [...]
C-SPAN’s Orgel Again Facilitates Disinformation and Defamation Concerning Israel
August 9, 2017
Paul Orgel C-SPAN’s Washington Journal daily three-hour morning call-in show uses a revolving roster of approximately 10 hosts often guilty of journalistic malpractice when Israel or Jews is mentioned. Host Paul Orgel is a prime [...]
The Washington Post Minimizes Islamic Hate Preacher’s Sermon
August 7, 2017
A Washington Post report on a California imam’s calls to “annihilate” Jews minimized and obfuscated the cleric’s comments and overt antisemitism (“California imam apologizes for sermon seen as inciting to Jews, condemns antisemitism”). As CAMERA [...]