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
Why Does a NY Times Journalist Want to Suppress an Anti-Hamas Article?
May 29, 2018
A New York Times journalist thinks the Wall Street Journal shouldn't have published an opinion piece criticizing Hamas's anti-Israel propaganda campaign. The reporter, Declan Walsh, is one of the Times reporters who has covered the [...]
Iran is Funding Hamas’s Violent ‘Protests’ at the Border, Media M.I.A.
May 22, 2018
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini The Islamic Republic of Iran is behind the recent Hamas-orchestrated violent demonstrations—dubbed the “March of Return”—at the Israel-Gaza border, according to Israeli authorities. Yet many major U.S. news outlets [...]
Are Gaza Gunmen “Protesters”? NY Times Refuses to Say
May 21, 2018
After repeatedly insisting that "Israeli soldiers killed 60 protesters" during clashes last Monday, May 14, the New York Times is refusing to clarify whether its count of supposed protesters includes the eight armed Hamas fighters [...]
Bahrain Says Israel Has a Right to Self-Defense, and the Media Shrugs
May 15, 2018
Bahrain's Foreign Minister and then-U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry The foreign minister of the Arab nation of Bahrain, Sheikh Khalid al-Khaalifa declared on May 10, 2018 that Israel has a right to defend itself. [...]
AFP Captions Call Jerusalem Parade Participants Settlers
May 15, 2018
Numerous Agence France-Presse photo captions generalized all participants in Sunday's Jerusalem Flag Parade as "settlers," despite the fact that the crowd hailed from across Israel, within the Green Line, as well as outside. A sampling [...]
Journalist: Hezbollah Shows ‘More Maturity’ Than Israel
May 9, 2018
Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah A Los Angeles Times special correspondent, Nabih Bulos, declared on Twitter on May 7, 2018, that Hezbollah (“Party of God”) shows “more maturity” than Israel. Hezbollah is a Lebanese-based, Iranian-backed, [...]