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Al-Dura Report: Smear Tactics That Work
by Emily L. Hauser May 24, 2013 3:45 PM EDT
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A lot of people (not least my editor, Ali Gharib) have been writing this week about Muhammad al-Dura, a 12-year-old boy killed in a fire-fight between Israeli and Palestinian forces early in the second Intifada. They’re writing about him because the Israeli government decided to stir up the hornet’s nest of his horrible, horrifying death and (once again) insist on its own ...
Among the most common memes with which lethal journalists respond to evidence that they’ve been circulating false stories, is to argue that it’s symbolic of an actual truth.
The most chilling expression of that attitude came from a PA TV official who was responsible for inserting into the footage of the original footage a picture of an Israeli soldier firing (rubber bullets at a riot in Nazereth caused by the airing of Abu Rahma’s footage and his narrative) in such a ...
Continue Reading → Share“What’s Your Problem with that?”: Enderlin and the Intellectual Corruption of the MSNM
(This article has been published at Pajamas Media.)
The startling footage of Neda, the 27-year old woman shot to death in the streets of Tehran recently has reminded some of the image of 12-year old Muhammad al Durah (HT Tom Gross):
Continue Reading → ShareThe footage of a Palestinian man [sic] being shot dead [sic] next to his 12-year-old son, Muhammad Jamal al-Durrah, by Israeli forces in Gaza in 2000 ...
One of the patterns of lethal journalism as practiced by Western journalists is first to inject the public sphere with a lethal narrative as news, engendering hatred and violence against the target of that narrative, and then, when it turns out to be false, say, “What does it matter?” This has come up recently since the Kuperwasser Report, which, since it’s a meme, is not surprising. Here is an earlier example, with my comments. It’s a good insight into the ...
Continue Reading → ShareI place this post in the Al Durah Journalist category because although it belongs also in Evidence, it’s most important contribution is an analysis of what’s going on with the lethal journalists who got caught up in the hysterical credulity among journalists in the wake of Al Durah.
Principled Dupedom: On the Moral Imperative to be Stupid, Augean Stables, April 18, 2013
One of the major weaknesses of Westerners in the current cognitive war with Islamic imperialism is a seemingly boundless ...
Continue Reading → ShareThe Kuperwasser Committee Report on Al Durah has elicited fascinating and revealing responses. This one from Saudi Arabia permits us to appreciate just how important a role that icon of hatred plays in the consciousness of the Palestinian/Arab/Muslim world.
Continue Reading → ShareFor the general public, the picture of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza usually conjures up confrontations between Palestinian boys throwing stones at armed Israeli soldiers. But in the one image which more than any other epitomizes the character ...
One of the more scandalous episodes of the Al Durah Affair came about after the judges saw the rushes and Karsenty won his appeal, much to the astonishment of the journalistic community who, under the aegis of Jean Daniel of Le Nouvel Observateur, put together a petition in his support. Below is a discussion of this development from an earlier post on Public Secrets (“they stage stuff all ...
Continue Reading → ShareLethal Narratives: Weapon of Mass Destruction in the War Against the West
by Nidra Poller (June 2009)
Delivered to the New English Review Symposium May 30th, 2009.
On September 30, 2000, state-owned France 2 television channel broadcast a video showing the alleged killing of a 12 year-old Palestinian youth, Mohamed al Dura, and the wounding of his father, Jamal. The ordeal was supposedly filmed as it happened at Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip by a France 2 cameraman, later identified as ...
Continue Reading → ShareOriginally posted at The Augean Stables, January 18, 2008
I recently gave a talk at a conference on Media and Ethics in Jerusalem, where I presented the case against Enderlin’s version of the Muhammad al Durah story. Apparently, the presentation was relatively convincing since one of the first criticisms I immediately received from a prominent Israeli professor of communications was: “So what? According to reliable statistics, the Israeli army has killed over 800 Palestinian children since the second Intifada. So ...
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