Supreme Court refuses to halt Channel One's screening of Jenin documentary

Haaretz 15.4.2003
By Moshe Reinfeld

Supreme Court Justice Ayala Procaccia yesterday rejected a petition filed by move director Mohammed Bakri, against the screening of "The Road to Jenin" on the Israel Broadcasting Authority's Channel One. Bakri, the director of "Jenin, Jenin," a controversial documentary on the IDF's operation in the West Bank refugee camp, had asked the court to prevent Channel One from airing its documentary until a ruling on his appeal against a censorship ban on his own documentary. Bakri's attorney, Avigdor Feldman, claimed in court that as long as his own documentary was banned, on the grounds that it falsified events in the refugee camp, the IBA should not be allowed to broadcast "The Road to Jenin," which portrays equally one-sided but opposing view of events. According to Bakri, "The Road to Jenin" was directed by a French-Jewish filmmaker who adopted a false identity and was known only as Pierre Rechov. Bakri argued that the IBA's film was "the crushing Jewish-Zionist answer" to "Jenin, Jenin." In her ruling, Justice Procaccia wrote that she was denying the petition since Bakri had not first approached the IBA over the film, nor had he contacted any of the other parties who would have been affected by any decision to bar screening. She added that, had the IBA considered the possibility of not screening the film, the lack of balance in the flow of opinions and viewpoints could have served as a legitimate basis for postponing the screening. Since the IBA did not consider this possibility, however, she ruled that the Supreme Court could not interfere to the detriment of the freedom of expression of the IBA. Procaccia was one member of the three-member panel that recently heard Bakri appeal against the ban on his documentary. A ruling is expected in that case within the coming days.