LEBANON/ISRAEL: Lebanon Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) aires documentary showing unseen footage purported to be missing Israeli navigator Ron Arad

The Lebanon Broadcasting Corporation (LBC) aired on Tuesday (September 5, 2006) a documentary containing what it claims is unseen footage of Ron Arad, a missing airman shot down over Lebanon in 1986. The documentary showed grainy black and white footage of a bearded man saying "Ron Arad, I am a soldier in Israeli Army." The fate of the missing navigator has been the source of speculation in Israel for the last twenty years. He continues to be the most emotive symbol of Israeli soldiers held captive or missing in action. In Beirut's southern suburb, people gathered at a cafe to watch the documentary. "I think that Ron Arab is out of Lebanon now, because if he was still here, the resistance could have used him for a prisoner exchange [with Israel]," said Ahmed Khawaj, as he watched the show with friends. The LBC film also showed footage of what it claimed to be the operation in which three Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers were taken by Hizbollah in October 2000. The veracity of the film is not known. Meanwhile viewers throughout Israel and the Palestinian areas were glued to their television sets as the long awaited documentary 'The Price of Freedom' on wednesday evening (September 5). The documentary showed footage of Hizbollah kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers in 2000 and included interviews with Hizbollah fighters, Hassan Nasrallah and former Israeli army commander as well as other Israeli officials. The documentary, of two parts, showed never seen before footage of soldier Ron Arad, who went missing when his plane crashed over Lebanon in 1986. An Israeli television producer who helped LBC make the documentary was quoted by Israel's Haaretz newspaper as saying he also believed the footage was genuine, but that it was unlikely to shed new light on Arad's capture.

ITN Source | September 6, 2006

Tags:. .white. .continues. .aires. .aired. .source