Academics Dispute Israel Army Account of Arab Shootings

JERUSALEM — A group of American, British and French academics accused the Israeli army Monday of “a gross distortion of the facts” in a report on the shooting deaths Sunday of two Palestinian teen-agers by the army.

The army had said that the deaths occurred after troops entered the West Bank village of Salfit to help a group of tourists whose bus was surrounded by a hostile crowd. But the academics, who were on the bus, told a news conference that they were warmly received in the village and they left before the soldiers arrived.

Zachary Lockman, a Harvard professor who spoke for the 11 academics, said, “We’re concerned about our visit there being used as a pretext (for the fatal clash).”

The army issued a correction late Monday, saying that its initial statement was based on a “misleading report” by a Jewish settler in the area that the bus had been hijacked by masked terrorists. An army unit raced to the scene and came under attack, a spokesman said, and the soldiers responded by opening fire.