Who Shot Mohammed al-Dura?

JAMES FALLOWS

The image of a boy shot dead in his helpless father’s arms during an Israeli confrontation with Palestinians has become the Pietà of the Arab world. Now a number of Israeli researchers are presenting persuasive evidence that the fatal shots could not have come from the Israeli soldiers known to have been involved in the confrontation. The evidence will not change Arab minds—but the episode offers an object lesson in the incendiary power of an icon

The ...

A Hoax?
Nidra Poller

Originally published in the Wall Street Journal on May 27, 2008

September 30, 2000, Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip: France 2 correspondent Charles Enderlin offers the world a front seat on the video shooting of Mohammed al-Durra and his father Jamal. Targeted, according to Mr. Enderlin’s voice-over commentary, by “gunfire from the direction of the Israeli positions.” A few seconds later: “Mohammed is dead, his father is critically wounded.” The France 2 cameraman, later identified as ...

The ongoing French legal proceedings in which the national television network France 2 seeks a criminal defamation judgement against the media critic Philip Karsenty over the network’s launch of the Aldurah Affair in September 2000 comes back yet again before a Paris appellate court on Wednesday January 16, 2013. It’s an important case for multiple reasons. Prof. Landes is an American historian, associate professor in the Department of History at Boston University, and an author specializing in millennialism.

Al Durah and ...

Al Durah Timeline

Extracted from
CAMERA BACKGROUNDER:
Mohammed Al Dura: Anatomy of a French Media Scandal

Originally published October 13, 2005
Ricki Hollander, Gilead Ini
Source: http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_article=855&x_context=3

Original report: October 13, 2005
Updated: June 15, 2010

2000

Sept. 30, 2000:

Palestinian gunmen and Israelis soldiers clash at the Netzarim junction in the Gaza Strip. A large contingent of foreign reporters, photographers and television crews are present, including France 2 cameraman Talal Abu Rahma. Much of the day’s events are filmed by the various ...

Introduction

There are five main ways to explain the footage that Talal Abu Rahma shot at Netzarim Junction of Muhammad and Jamal Al Durah. Four of them assume that the boy was indeed shot.

The first one we consider, shot by the Israelis on purpose, is the one that both Talal and Jamal have insisted upon.

The second, shot by the Israelis by accident, is one that many people, accepting most but not all of the eyewitness testimony, find most plausible.

The third and ...

Pallywood FAQ

Richard A. Landes

This document originally appeared on seconddraft.org

What’s the best introduction to Pallywood? 

The sources themselves. Go to the pages where we have posted the raw footage from three Palestinian cameramen, working for major Western news agencies at Netzarim Junction on Sept. 30, 2000, and judge for yourself if what you see filmed represents real or staged “events.” Only then should you investigate further and read the opinion of others.

How did you acquire these tapes? 

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