Claim No. 8: Jamal Al Durah, at least, was injured by explosive bullets fired by the IDF
Aldurah.com critique
Talal Abu Rahma claims that the IDF hit the Al Durahs with explosive rounds – telling Esther Schapira that there was no autopsy of Muhammad Al Durah and appealing to the report of Jamal Al Durah’s alleged injuries made by doctors in Jordan. It is not clear whether Abu Rahma forgot there had been an autopsy of the body purported to be Muhammad Al Durah’s, or whether he expected Esther Schapira to forget it. However, Talal Abu Rahma’s claim that there was no autopsy flies in the face of the videotaped interview of Dr. Abed El Raqez El-Masry, the pathologist from Shifa hospital who performed an autopsy – however cursory – on a body alleged to be Muhammad Al Durah’s. It should be noted that Dr. Al Masry’s interview makes no mention of explosive bullets, nor do the accompanying photographs of the autopsied body show evidence of wounds that would be caused by explosive rounds. In fact, Dr. El Masry notes that one of the wounds suffered by the boy autopsied was caused by a bullet that exited the youth’s left hip. An explosive round would have disintegrated.
The foregoing alone does not prove that explosive rounds were not used; however, Talal Abu Rahma’s casual misrepresentation concerning the absence of any autopsy and Dr. El Masry’s actual observations militate strongly against the truth of Abu Rahma’s claims of “explosion bullets”. Further, when considered in concert with Talal Abu Rahmas’ own video footage of Jamal Al Durah – who variously claimed to have been struck between 9 and 12 times – Talal’s account appears even more dubious. At the end of the scene recorded by Talal Abu Rahma, both Jamal and Muhammad Al Durah appear completely intact. Jamal Al Durah shows no sign of bleeding or physical injury.