Hen Keinan: “CNN Interview About My Murdered Daughter Turned Into a Show About the Terrorist’s Mother

The parents of the infant Sinai Keinan, who was murdered last week in the terror attack in Petah Tikva, were interviewed last week on CNN, and tearfully told the story of their loss.

When they later viewed the program, they said they were alarmed to see that instead of their story, only the mother of the terrorist who carried out the terror attack appeared on the program.

Last Friday Hen Keinan and her husband Lior were asked to be interviewed on the CNN program called “International Hour”. This is a program that is broadcast in many countries all over the world. They were asked to talk about their feelings following the murder of their 14 month old infant daughter, Sinai, and Hen’s mother, Ruti Peled, 56, who was also killed in the terror attack.

Hen, who speaks English well, and her husband Lior, already prepared at the hospital, very carefully, the message they wished to convey to the world, and “especially to the Europeans who give legitimacy to terror.”

Before the taped interview began, Hen was asked to speak, in a live broadcast, to an American broadcast of the network, and among other things, she said: “We love you. Help us as much as you can”.

Afterwards the two went for a special interview. The journalist who interviewed them, asked Hen, among other things: “How do you feel”? And she responded with a question: “Do you have a mother? Do you have children”? “Close your eyes for a minute and imagine that they were murdered in front of your eyes. Only then will you know in what hell I live”. Her husband, Lior, showed the journalist the broken parts of Sinai’s baby carriage, and all the members of the broadcast team shed tears.

“That same evening”, related Hen painfully, “We sat down to watch the special interview with us, and instead, to our amazement, we got only the interview with the mother of the terrorist who carried out the terror attack in which my daughter and mother were murdered”.

The terrorist’s mother related during the interview, among other things, that before he left on his mission, she gave him her blessings.

“Only the day after were portions of my interview broadcast, in another program, with my statements having been edited”, related Hen last night on the Israeli TV show, Documedia. She said that the special interview with her was not even broadcast. She expressed anger about the “unfair and unprofessional” treatment by CNN. Hen said that she expects that in wake of this, the Israeli Foreign Ministry would remove foreign journalists from Israel, as they serve the Palestinian public relations goals.

CNN had made no comment to make.

This piece ran in Yediot Aharonot on June 3, 2002