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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israeli source of "executed
children" lie admits story was untrue</h1>
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<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-author"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/people/asa-winstanley"
moz-do-not-send="true">Asa Winstanley</a></span>
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-blog"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blog/rights-and-accountability"
moz-do-not-send="true">Rights and Accountability</a></span>
<span class="gmail-field gmail-field-publication-date"><span
class="gmail-date-display-single">27 March 2024</span></span>
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The Jewish extremist responsible for concocting some of
Israel’s worst atrocity propaganda about 7 October has
admitted that one of his stories about Hamas executing
children was untrue.
<p><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/yossi-landau"
moz-do-not-send="true">Yossi Landau</a> of the group
<a href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/zaka"
moz-do-not-send="true">ZAKA</a> concedes in a new
interview with Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit that
dead bodies he previously claimed to have seen in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/kibbutz-beeri"
moz-do-not-send="true">Kibbutz Be’eri</a> were “not
children.”</p>
<p>In the interview he admits: “When you look at them
and they’re burned you don’t know exactly the ages. So
you’re talking about 18-year-old, 20 years old … you
just don’t look on the spot … to see the ages or
something like that.”</p>
<p>The interview is part of <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israel-killed-israelis-confirms-new-7-october-documentary"
moz-do-not-send="true">Al Jazeera’s new documentary</a>,
<em>October 7</em>, which confirms that Israel itself
killed a number of the Israeli dead that day – as <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israeli-hq-ordered-troops-shoot-israeli-captives-7-october"
moz-do-not-send="true">The Electronic Intifada has
reported all along</a>.</p>
<p>In the documentary, Landau is pressed by producer
Richard Sanders to explain a story he repeatedly
spread to journalists last year.</p>
<p>“You’re talking children,” Landau claimed to Sky News
in October. “Piles of 10 children each were tied to
the back, [then] burned [in] the bed. Something behind
this is next level … it’s indescribable.”</p>
<p>It’s a story that Landau repeated again and again in
the wake of the 7 October Palestinian military
assault. His lurid allegations successfully demonized
Palestinians and helped pave the way for Israel’s
ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, which has so far
claimed the lives of more than 32,000 people.</p>
<p>You can watch the Al Jazeera interview with Landau in
the video above, which is a clip from <a
href="https://www.ajiunit.com/investigation/october-7/"
moz-do-not-send="true">the full Al Jazeera
documentary that you can watch on their website</a>.</p>
<h2>Beheaded babies lies</h2>
<p>Landau also seems to have <a
href="https://www.algemeiner.com/2023/10/11/israeli-medic-confirms-to-cbs-babies-beheaded-at-kibbutz/"
moz-do-not-send="true">been responsible</a> for the
definitively debunked <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/biden-lied-about-seeing-photos-beheaded-israeli-children"
moz-do-not-send="true">Israeli lie that 40 babies
had been executed by Hamas</a>.</p>
<p>As well as that, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/un-report-launders-israels-fraudulent-mass-rape-propaganda/45021"
moz-do-not-send="true">Landau was involved</a> in
promoting Israel’s stories about an <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/mass-rape-accusation"
moz-do-not-send="true">alleged Palestinian campaign</a>
of sexual violence on 7 October – which has <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-commission-7-october-rape-claims-exposed-fraud/45401"
moz-do-not-send="true">now entirely collapsed</a>.</p>
<p><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/un-report-launders-israels-fraudulent-mass-rape-propaganda/45021"
moz-do-not-send="true">Landau also accompanied</a>
UN official Pramila Patten on her visit to the
kibbutzim as research for her report on alleged sexual
violence by Palestinians (the report claimed rape may
have taken place, but presented no evidence and was
based almost entirely on official government sources).</p>
<p>Landau’s new admission to Al Jazeera that these dead
“children” were not, in fact, children at all, appears
to be the first on-camera admission that he had not
told the truth.</p>
<p>Given his well-documented history of lying, there’s
no reason to believe any aspect of Landau’s account.</p>
<p>As the documentary shows, however, Landau’s lies were
highly influential.</p>
<p>Along with other atrocity propaganda, they were
passed on by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
to US President Joe Biden, who in turn lied that he
had actually seen photos of the “beheaded babies.” The
<a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/biden-lied-about-seeing-photos-beheaded-israeli-children"
moz-do-not-send="true">White House was later forced
to clarify</a> that Biden had not seen any such
photos.</p>
<p>The photos, of course, did not exist, because no such
executions had taken place.</p>
<p>As the documentary shows, US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken repeated other such atrocity stories
publicly, also taken from ZAKA’s innovative lies.</p>
<h2>Jewish extremists</h2>
<p>Yossi Landau is the southern regional head of ZAKA, a
Jewish extremist group.</p>
<p>Working in close coordination with the Israeli
government and military, ZAKA describes itself as an
emergency rescue organization, with more than 3,000
volunteers around the country.</p>
<p>ZAKA’s male-only volunteers are not medically
trained, have no professional qualifications and
completely lack medical expertise.</p>
<p>In fact, ZAKA is an ultra-Orthodox religious group
which specializes in removing bodies and body parts in
the aftermath of an emergency. It transports them to
morgues in line with strict Jewish religious law, in
order to prepare them for burial. It <a
href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/zaka-is-not-a-trustworthy-source-for-allegations-of-sexual-violence-on-october-7/"
moz-do-not-send="true">adamantly opposes forensic
autopsies</a> and other such medical science.</p>
<p>The removal of bodies <a
href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-774511"
moz-do-not-send="true">has been done at the cost</a>
– some would say <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/evidence-israel-killed-its-own-citizens-7-october/41156"
moz-do-not-send="true">with the intent</a> – of
destroying important forensic evidence in the wake of
the 7 October Palestinian military assault.</p>
<p>The indiscriminate Israeli retaliation to that attack
left an undetermined number of Israelis dead, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israel-admits-immense-amount-friendly-fire-7-october"
moz-do-not-send="true">in what the Israeli military
has admitted was</a> an “immense” number of what it
called “friendly fire” incidents.</p>
<p>Since 7 October, ZAKA has come under increasing
scrutiny from independent journalists, <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/watch-ny-times-investigation-mass-rape-hamas-falls-apart"
moz-do-not-send="true">not least by The Electronic
Intifada</a>.</p>
<p>The earliest and perhaps most persistent journalist
to expose Landau and ZAKA has been Max Blumenthal of <em>The
Grayzone</em>. And indeed, much of Al Jazeera’s
background reporting on Landau in the new film seems
to rely on <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2023/12/06/scandal-israeli-october-7-fabrications/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Blumenthal’s extensive exposé
on the topic</a> from 6 December.</p>
<p>As Blumenthal reported, Landau’s lies about Hamas
supposedly burning 20 children alive were repeated to
media the world over. As was his similarly lurid
invention that he had come across the murdered body of
a pregnant women with the fetus cut out of her, which
was then in turn stabbed to death.</p>
<p>Where Al Jazeera’s film does advance the reporting is
by securing an interview with Landau himself and –
possibly for the first time – actually challenging him
on camera about the inconsistencies in his many tall
tales.
</p>
As Blumenthal pointed out on X (formerly Twitter) after
watching the interview, the conversation also revealed
yet another lie Landau told to the Western media.
<p>When quoted in <em>The New York Times’</em>
infamously <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/ny-times-tries-cover-its-7-october-mass-rapes-fraud"
moz-do-not-send="true">fabricated reporting about a
supposed campaign</a> of “mass rape” by Hamas,
Landau claimed to their reporters that he “did not
take pictures because we are not allowed to take
pictures.”</p>
<p>By stark way of contrast he insists to Al Jazeera’s
skeptical Richard Sanders – who had asked him about
the dead fetus story – that “if you want to see the
picture, I have the picture.”</p>
<p>He then declines to show “the picture” on camera,
instead playing a video to Richard Sanders, who
reports that “I can’t see a baby here.”</p>
<p>Unused to being challenged by journalists, Landau
then splutters through a series of contradictory
excuses: “You can’t see the baby because – but this is
the picture of the mother. For sure. You know, we
didn’t think, when we – we didn’t think to to, to
camera everything. We didn’t have that, this wasn’t in
our….”</p>
<p>Al Jazeera says in the film that the image only
showed “an unidentifiable piece of charred flesh.”</p>
<p>Sanders should perhaps take care if he were ever to
encounter Landau again.</p>
<p>When Landau was asked on one podcast what he would
say to “people out there who question” or who “play
down the atrocities” his response was bone chilling.</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t say anything … he should be killed,”
Landau insisted. “Together with the Hamas terrorist …
Because he’s a part of it.”
</p>
Writing for <em>Mondoweiss</em>, The Short String – an
anonymous collective of Palestinian journalists inside
Israel – did <a
href="https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/zaka-is-not-a-trustworthy-source-for-allegations-of-sexual-violence-on-october-7/"
moz-do-not-send="true">an extensive report on ZAKA’s
history</a> of deception, extremism and military
propaganda.
<p>The group was founded in 1995 by Yehuda Meshi-Zahav,
the ex-leader of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish terrorist
group “that targeted forensic pathologists and used
explosives against shops selling ‘secular
newspapers,’” The Short String reported.</p>
<p>Landau’s lies are nothing new. ZAKA has long had a
reputation for deception, even within Israel. “In the
past, they sent numerous pieces of news that turned
out to be lies,” Israeli Army Radio reported in 2002.</p>
<p>Meshi-Zahav remained leader of ZAKA until 2021, when
he attempted to kill himself amid an investigation
sparked by a series of highly credible reports that he
had raped and sexually assaulted dozens of people –
including children as young as 12. (Meshi-Zahav later
died of his injuries.)</p>
<p>As Blumenthal reported, Meshi-Zahav was known in
Israel “as ‘the Haredi Jeffrey Epstein’ due to his
well-documented penchant for raping young people of
both sexes.”</p>
<p>This is the same group that is still taken seriously
as a credible source by corporate media across the
Western world.</p>
<h2>“Influencing public opinion”</h2>
<p>ZAKA has also in recent months raked in millions of
dollars of donations from rich backers in the West,
mainly off the back of its lurid atrocity propaganda.</p>
<p>Benjamin Netanyahu himself has been explicit about
ZAKA’s key role in this gencodial campaign, and how it
helps Israel resist the growing calls for a ceasefire
in Gaza.</p>
<p>“We need to buy time,” he <a
href="https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/event-zaka231123"
moz-do-not-send="true">told ZAKA volunteers</a>
during a visit to their offices in November. He
explained that this would be done “by turning to world
leaders and to public opinion. You have an important
role in influencing public opinion, which also
influences leaders. We are at war; it will continue.”</p>
<p>ZAKA has indeed continued this unscrupulous role with
utter ruthlessness.</p>
<p>In an email from ZAKA leader Yoni Gilboa to potential
donors last week, obtained by The Electronic Intifada,
ZAKA even justified the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/israel-continues-attack-al-shifa-hospital-systemic-violence"
moz-do-not-send="true">latest Israeli attack on
al-Shifa hospital</a>, in northern Gaza.</p>
<p>“This action was taken based on concrete intelligence
that senior Hamas officials were using the hospital’s
premises,” the group claimed in the email, echoing the
Israeli military’s typically self-serving lies.</p>
<p>ZAKA wrote in the email that they “mourn the loss of
an Israeli soldier, Staff Sgt. Matan Vinogradov, 20,
of Jerusalem. His bravery and sacrifice in the line of
duty will not be forgotten.”</p>
<span>
<img
src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2024-03/zala-email.png?itok=IV_6tKYC×tamp=1711282628"
alt="A screenshot of an email from ZAKA" title=""
class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img"
style="margin-right: 25px;" moz-do-not-send="true"
width="450" height="245">
</span>
<p>“In these difficult times, the role of ZAKA Tel-Aviv
is more critical than ever,” they added. “Your support
enables us to continue this vital work … Donate now.
Thank you for standing with us, for your unwavering
support, and for helping us make a difference.”</p>
<p>But the group’s mercenary instincts may yet lead to
the downfall of its most famous leader.</p>
<p>Last week, Israeli media reported that Yossi Landau <a
href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/2-zaka-volunteers-suspended-after-videos-show-one-hugging-a-woman-speaking-at-church-fundraiser/"
moz-do-not-send="true">had been suspended</a> from
ZAKA.</p>
<p>However, Landau’s chickens had not yet come home to
roost. Instead, ZAKA announced in a statement, he and
his brother had done “things that contradict the
halacha [religious law] of our holy Torah.”</p>
<p>Video had emerged of Landau on a lucrative
fundraising trip to Texas hugging <a
href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-sironi-5127521bb/"
moz-do-not-send="true">Julie Sironi</a>, the “Israel
and Jewish liaison” of a Christian Zionist <a
href="https://israelallies.org/julie-sironi-2023"
moz-do-not-send="true">megachurch</a>.</p>
<p>Israeli journalist <a
href="https://twitter.com/yoeli_brim/status/1770843004238012537"
moz-do-not-send="true">Yoeli Brim reported</a> that
the pair had raised “over a million dollars” from the
church.</p>
<p>The video reportedly caused outrage among ZAKA’s
ultra-Orthodox volunteers. Physical contact between
most men and women is prohibited in strictly religious
Judaism.</p>
<p>It remains to be seen how long Landau’s suspension
will last.</p>
<br>
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