Israel Matzav

Soldier's father: It was cold-blooded murder

Tonight, Israel's Channel 10 and the Lebanese Broadcast Corporation will be screening previously unseen films of captured Israeli navigator Ron Arad. Arad was shot down over Lebanon in 1986, and the film includes scenes of Arad talking and smoking in captivity that have never been seen before.

The film also includes footage of the abduction of Benny Avraham, Adi Avitan and Omar Souad at Har Dov (Shebaa Farms) in 2000. Avraham, Avitan and Souad were murdered with UN complicity cooperation and their bodies were returned to Israel together with Israeli businessman philandering drug dealer Elhanan Tannenbaum in 2004 in exchange for more than 400 prisoners terrorists who were held in Israel. Because of that, Avraham's, Avitan's and Souad's families were allowed to view parts of the film in advance. YNet reports:

In the video, a promo of which was already broadcast on Channel 10, Arad is seen smoking a cigarette and stating his name and the names of his parents: "Ron Arad, Dov Arad, Batya Arad."

Haim Avraham, the father of Benny, said after watching the film: "The first impression is that this is a propaganda film sent by Hizbullah to the Israeli society through the Israeli media."

"In the film we see our children's last moment and can see at least one of the soldiers walking on his legs and another being dragged forcefully. I am certain that Hizbullah murdered our children, the ones who were alive," he added.

'UN hid information; UNIFIL are liars'

"We were aware of a great part of the information, but not about their last moments, and the State of Israel also did not know," Avraham added. "It is clear that the children were murdered cold-bloodedly. Clear and simple, our sons were murdered by Hizbullah."

"Hizbullah made sure to erase the United Nations' cooperation in the film, but the UN's lies become clear here. They filmed the kidnapping and knew what was happening all along. They knew that (UN Secretary-General) Kofi Annan was being self-righteous and suddenly became the good mediator," he charged.

Avraham went on with his harsh criticism of Annan, warning that he cannot be trusted.

"We have to watch him with a magnifying glass. A person on behalf of him – (UN envoy to the Middle East) Terje Larsen – is a liar, and Israel must settle the score with him. He had this information and he hid it from us," he said.

"This film proves that our sons carried out the mission like they were supposed to. The State of Israel , through the State Prosecutor's Office, should prepare a report today about our children's murder and about all of UNIFIL's lies. The State of Israel must not trust UNIFIL," Avraham added.

...

The tape and the way it will be broadcast – on a commercial channel in Lebanon of all places – aroused harsh responses among the Avitan family members toward the UN.

"Hizbullah has its own channel. It's only natural that if the tape was in their possession it would be aired on al-Manar. It appears that someone has been trading with it and it has been in the possession of the UN, which kept silent and said nothing," Yaakov Avitan charged.

Read it all.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:35 PM