Segment 3 of 7: The Al Durahs Terrified


This segment opens at Time Code Reading (TCR) 1:17:24 with a wide shot revealing an empty camera tripod to the left of the Al Durahs. They are apparently sheltering behind a barrel upon which is resting a large stone, near a wall.

The shot almost immediately narrows to tightly focus on the father, Jamal, who is looking at the camera and speaking while he appears to be shielding his son with his right arm. At first Jamal’s arm and T-shirt sleeve obscures the boy’s face, but then he raises his elbow at an angle to reveal it. Jamal spends about 1/3 of this 17 second segment looking to the camera. See also TCR 1:17:28, TCR 1:17:33 when Jamal yells toward the camera and TCR 1:17:39 at the very end of the segment). All the while, Jamal’s left hand grasps a cell phone near his legs as he crouches behind the barrel.

The second of Esther Schapira’s documentaries on this incident, Das Kind, Der Tod und Die Warheit (2009) at 23:27 – 24:02 deciphers and analyzes Jamal’s shrieks in the direction of the camera, with the help of an Arabic lip-reader- “It’s enough, you have killed my son; it’s over (finished)”.

At TCR 1:17:26 we suddenly hear shouts of “Mat al Walad!” (The boy is dead!) from unidentified voices that sound quite close to the camera. The cries are repeated at TCR 1:17:28 and again at TCR 1:17:36. However, there is no indication at any point in this segment that either the boy or Jamal has been wounded. Both appear fully conscious and to be moving throughout in animated fashion.

At TCR 1:17:36 Jamal removes his right hand from the boy in order to wag his finger in the direction of the Israeli position. Jamal’s fingers barely protrude above the stone sitting atop the barrel. Jamal then returns his arm to the boy.