B'Tselem
B'TselemFlash 90

Radically anti-Israel group B’tselem is whitewashing the murderous record of Arab terrorists, according to a report published this morning in Yediot Aharonot.

The report points out that B’tselem’s website includes a database of names of “Palestinians killed by Israeli security forces” which puts those on the list into various categories - including “Palestinians of whom it is unknown whether they participated in fighting.” However, this category includes the names of terrorists involved in the murder of Jews, in certain cases on a mass scale.

The issue was discovered by one of the members of the IDF unit of Daniel Mandel, who was killed fighting terrorists in Shechem in April 2003. Preparing to travel to Mandel’s gravesite with his unit to mark 14 years since his death, Mandel’s comrade searched for information about the incident on the internet.

After B’tselem’s website appeared, he was surprised to find that the terrorist who had shot Mandel, Mazen Fritah, was listed as a “Palestinian killed by Israeli security forces, of whom it is unknown whether he had participated in fighting in the West Bank [sic].”

At the time that he was killed, Fritah was a commander in the Tanzim terror brigades of Fatah who was responsible for attacks which claimed the lives of 30 Israelis, but the B’tselem website makes no mention of the fact that Fritah was a terrorist.

Further, Mandel’s comrade told Yediot Aharonot that he was “100% sure” that Mandel was shot by Fritah.

“I saw him shoot with my own eyes,” he said, noting that the military investigation following the incident drew the same conclusion. “In that encounter he also dropped his weapon - he had an M16 and a handgun. It’s completely incorrect to say that it’s unclear whether he was involved in fighting.”

Likewise, B’tselem's website includes the names of other arch-terrorists under the heading of “Palestinians of whom participation in fighting is unknown.”

B’tselem said in response to the report: “B’tselem does not say that those mentioned were not involved in fighting, but only that we have no information of their involvement during the incident in which they were killed. As is clear to all , the description ‘unknown’ does not address past actions of the killed person [but only the incident during which they were killed]. This classification is in accordance with accepted humanitarian law until 2008, when the Red Cross changed its definitions. In any event, the information we publish is the result of our own independent investigation.”