The film clearly shows that the IDF soldiers immediately intervened when the dog attacked 
Israel's leading news media and the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Information seem to have reached new levels of cooperation this week as Ynet, the largest news website in Hebrew, featured video with contradictory narration and provided another video used by the PA's Ministry of Information for a harsh attack on Israel. Israeli television stations have also participated in the attacks on Israel.
An item featured on Ynet's front page over the weekend shows video footage of an IDF dog pulling the arm of an Arab woman for several seconds during an IDF operation in a village near Bethlehem. Snippets of footage which precede this appears to show that the soldiers, in full combat gear, had sent the dog into a building, and that Arab men and women were trying to interfere with the operation.
The film clearly shows that the IDF soldiers immediately intervened when the dog attacked the woman, pulling it away and preventing it from continuing the attack.
However, the voice-over narration in Hebrew says that the dog is attacking a woman "while soldiers look on and do nothing." The item also extensively quotes PA Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti, who showed the video in a news conference, claiming that it showed "dogs" attacking a woman and invoking comparisons to South Africa under white rule.
Barghouti added that "such practices reflect racial discrimination which the Israeli government adopts against the Palestinian people under occupation" and called on the international community to immediately intervene to stop the "Israeli attacks" and cease the "apartheid policy" against Palestinians.
Barghouti also presented another video, in which Border Police are shown striking an Arab boy after a rock- throwing incident. That video was first featured by Ynet, and has led to the policemen's suspension.
The video of the IDF dog is credited to Israeli Channel 10 TV and the Ynet item is signed by the website's leading reporter for Arab matters, Ali Waked. Ynet is owned by Yediot Acharonot, Israel's largest daily newspaper.
The IDF Spokesman issued this response to the video: "In the course of activity for arrest of a suspect in the village of Abeydah near Bethlehem, a woman approached the operational force, shouted and attempted to interfere with activity. After soldiers asked the woman several times to go away, the dog – which was part of one of the components of the force – attacked the woman. The soldiers immediately prevented the attack from continuing and transferred the woman to the Red Crescent for treatment. The IDF is sorry for any injury, be it the lightest, to uninvolved parties."
IDF sources also said that the dogs' activity is intended to prevent unnecessary harm to IDF soldiers.
The IDF did not wish to comment on the Ynet narration of the video piece. The head of the Israeli Foreign Office's Israeli Media Department, Yael Raviyah, was unfamiliar with the entire incident and its coverage, and did not wish to comment on it. She said it was the IDF Spokesman's job to do this, and voiced the opinion that the IDF Spokesman should file a complaint with Ynet's editor. She said she would not be discussing the matter with the IDF Spokesman.
The "attack dog" story has been featured in other news outlets since the week end. PA-based news media have been mocking the IDF Spokesman's unit. A piece in Bethlehem-based Ma'an News identifies the woman as Yusrah Sbeih Rabay'a, whose brother Daoud is a suspected Fatah terrorist whom the soldiers were there to arrest. It quotes the IDF spokesman as telling Ma'an the dog was "doing its duty" and defending the soldiers.
"However," mocks Ma'an, "what cannot be denied or proven is whether Yusra is the one who initiated the incident, and forced the dog to bite her hand. Did she really put her hand between the teeth of the 'innocent' dog, as would be understood by the incredulous (sic) Israeli story of the incident?"
Haaretz's website featured an AP photo of the dog attacking the woman, preferring it over a Reuters photo which shows the soldiers trying to bring the dog under control. The captions on the news agency photos all label the woman as a "bystander," neglecting to mention she is the wanted man's sister.
Dr. Barghouti is the former head of the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees. According to the Israel Resource Review, the UPMRC is the organization responsible for spreading the rumored news item that Israel has developed special poisonous tear gas for use against Arab children, and that Israel has developed special methodologies of dumping waste in Arab villages so as to cause Arab villagers to come down with mass dysentery.
Ynet has not seen fit to respond to repeated inquiries as to the reason for the misleading voice-over in its report.