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. Ehov’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 Pierre joins us from Israel to discuss...
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.”
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