Dear SBS,
I was unaware that management has decided to show Israeli propoganda films without even the pretence of balance. I am referring to the Cutting Edge documentary from the US, 'Jenin, Massacring Truth' which aired at 8.30 pm on Tuesday the 10th of May. When you last aired the award winning documentary 'Jenin Jenin', considered to be pro Palestinian, you deliberately preceded it with a pro Israeli (point of view) documentary of the same incident. No doubt you were fearful of a backlash from the likes of Colin Rubenstein (Executive Director, Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council) if you hadn't.
This latest documentary was breathtaking in its distortions. Far from restricting itself to an analysis of media reporting of the Israeli incursion into the Jenin refugee camp - the only topic its title suggested was going to be covered - it proceeded to use the incident as a defence against media reporting generally critical of Israel. No effort was spared to suggest that all criticism of Israel, vis-a-vis their conduct towards Palestinians, stems from anti semitism. While the doco made legitimate and accurate assertions regarding the (mis)reporting of the Jenin incursion, e.g. widespread misreporting of civilian casualties and the inappropriate use of the word 'massacre', the subsequent leap from this to defend the 'unquestionable morality' of the Israeli Defence Force was both transparent and laughable.
For instance it claimed that IDF soldiers never deliberately target Palestinian civilians but that when they're "nearby", civilians inevitably get killed. This statement was contrasted with images of the aftermath of suicide bombings perpetrated by Palestinian militants. The inference was clear. Israeli civilians are always killed deliberately while Palestinian civilians are only ever killed 'by accident'. This completely ignores evidence by numerous human rights groups who work in the occupied territories. There was no mention of the fact that three times as many Palestinians (80% civilian) have been killed as compared to Israelis. No mention of the use of live rounds and flachette tank shells against unarmed civilians. No mention of the one tonne bomb dropped by the IDF on a residential apartment building, killing women and children but missing the wheelchair bound invalid it was intended for. No mention of Ariel Sharon (of Sabra and Shatila infamy) describing that bombing as a "great success". But perhaps most startling of all was the absence of any mention of Israel's brutal 38 year military occupation of the Palestinian territories. No mention at all. In fact I can't recall the word occupation being mentioned even once during the entire documentary. One really has to wonder whether the documentary makers simply concluded that the word was best not mentioned, as it would be too difficult to explain how the IDF has managed to occupy and suppress a civilian population for decades without using violence.
It was also interesting how the UN was selectively highlighted as the 'authority' which had investigated and concluded that no massacre had occurred in Jenin. The UN was it?. Very impressive. The fact that this same authority has on a number of occasions concluded that Israel mistreats Palestinians was absent. Nor was there any mention of UN resolutions critical of Israel or obliging Israel to vacate illegally occupied land, e.g. resolution 242. No mention at all. As was the doco completely silent on Israel's refusal to allow UN monitoring (let alone peacekeepers) in the occupied territories. It seems the UN was only worth mentioning in relation to a conclusion favourable to Israel. How strange.
At the end we were told by an American academic that the US rightly supports Israel because it is "the only democracy in the Middle East". However this assertion is belied by the facts. Neighbouring non democratic Arab states are also supported by the US. States such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Iraq (pre 1990). None of this was mentioned. States (including Israel) are supported primarily for their strategic value. If democracy were the highest good to which the US aspired in its foreign policy, democratically elected Arafat would not have been shunned. If democracy is the highest good which Israel supports, then foreign minister Silvan Shalom would not have declared in the past day or so that if Hamas members are democratically elected in the upcoming elections, Israel will not recognise the Palestinian government.
That SBS should choose to show a prime time documentary so unashamedly biased and deceptive is worrying. I suspect, a la the screening of 'Jenin Jenin', that you are planning to show something truthful (i.e. critical of Israel) and needed to screen this as a buffer from expected criticism from the pro Israel lobby in Australia. However if I'm wrong, then your decision is even more worrying.
Sincerely,
Methinks.
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JiGZ is right, there are some lenghty ones elsewhere, Sis. 
