Two Israeli movie theaters paid damages to a group of Israeli army reservists after screening a controversial documentary.
The Tel Aviv and Jerusalem cinemas this week paid $10,000 total in compensation to five former soldiers who had sued them for screening “Jenin, Jenin,” which insinuates the army committed war crimes during 2002 fighting in the West Bank city of Jenin.
The plaintiffs all served in Jenin, and while they do not appear in the film, they argued that it defamed them indirectly.
The case was settled out of court.
The plaintiffs are pursuing a separate suit against “Jenin, Jenin” director Mohammed Bakri, an Israeli Arab. That case is go to court early next year.
Fifty-four Palestinians, at least half of them gunmen, and 23 Israeli soldiers were killed in Jenin, facts that did little to dispel perceptions in the Arab world that the city saw widespread “massacres” by the Israeli army.
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