Now the camera focuses on a man and a boy crouched behind a concrete barrel or culvert, their faces contorted in fear. Enderlin: “Here Jamal al-Dura and his son are targets of gunfire from Israeli positions.” The camera pans to a nearby Israeli outpost. The father waves with his right hand in the direction of the Israeli position. The father is hunched behind the barrel, the boy nestled against his back. Enderlin:
Muhammad is twelve years old. His father tries to protect him. He waves. But another round of fire bursts out. Muhammad is dead, and his father grievously wounded. During the 55-second sequence, two shots have hit a concrete-block wall that stands like a backdrop for the scene, landing far afield of the father and son. Other bullet holes, similarly off-target, can be seen in the wall as well. The father shields the boy; the father’s arm is clearly visible, perpendicular to the ground. Guttural cries are heard, adding to the feeling of panic. The last round of gunfire kicks up a cloud of dust, obscuring the man and boy. When the dust clears, the boy is stretched out at his father’s feet; the father bobs his head as if groggy.
And that was it. As Enderlin would later explain, the reason France-2’s scoop was offered free to the world was that the producers did not want to earn a profit from so tragic an incident. Only the terrible moments of the child’s death throes, he added, had been edited out, being “too unbearable.” The film sequence itself, attributed at first to a “France-2 cameraman,” was subsequently identified as the work of the station’s Palestinian stringer, Talal Abu Rahmeh. By then, the full authority and reputation of France-2 itself had been indelibly stamped on the footage.
[…]
In one version of his story, Talal Abu Rahmeh went to Netzarim junction at seven in the morning on a hunch that the children would be out demonstrating “because it was a school day,” and he knew they demonstrated on school days. In another version, he ran over to the junction at 3 PM, after someone called his office to inform him that there were fierce battles going on. The outtakes show he was there from early morning. Apparently, a dozen of his colleagues had the same intuition; they too can be seen in the raw footage.
The Reuters, AP, and France-2 outtakes that I viewed show two totally different and easily identifiable types of activity at Netzarim junction: real, intifada-style attacks, and crudely falsified battle scenes. Both the real and the fake scenes are played out against a background of normal civilian activity at a busy crossroads. In the “reality” zone, excited children and angry young men hurl rocks and Molotov cocktails at the Israeli outpost while shababs (“youths”) standing on the roof of the Twins throw burning tires down onto the caged lookout; this goes on seemingly for hours, without provoking the slightest military reaction from Israeli soldiers.
At the same time, in the “theatrical” zone, Palestinian stringers sporting prestigious logos on their vests and cameras are seen filming battle scenes staged behind the abandoned factory, well out of range of Israeli gunfire. The “wounded” sail through the air like modern dancers and then suddenly collapse. Cameramen jockey with hysterical youths who pounce on the “casualties,” pushing and shoving, howling Allahu akhbar!, clumsily grabbing the “injured,” pushing away the rare ambulance attendant in a pale green polyester jacket in order to shove, twist, haul, and dump the “victims” into UN and Red Crescent ambulances that pull up on a second’s notice and career back down the road again, sirens screaming. In one shot we recognize Talal Abu Rahmeh in his France-2 vest, filming a staged casualty scene.*
Split seconds of these ludicrous vignettes would later appear in newscasts and special reports; the husk, the raw footage that would reveal the fakery, had been removed, leaving the kernel rich in anti-Israel nutrients.
Such staged scenes showed up, for example, in a dramatic CBS 60 Minutes special report on Netzarim crossing – a place “now known,” intoned Bob Simon, echoing Palestinian sources, “as Martyr’s Junction.”
The al-Dura death scene was filmed right in the middle of these falsified incidents. It can be localized and situated. In one section of Reuters footage we see the man and the boy crouched behind the upended culvert as a jeep drives slowly up the road, stops in firing range of the Israeli position that is clearly visible in the near distance, makes a U-turn, drives in the opposite direction, stops short of the barrel/culvert, and helps perform the clearly faked evacuation of a man wounded in the right leg, as also shown in the France-2 news report. In fact, two ambulances stand for a long moment no more than fifteen feet from the al-Duras. There is no evidence of armed combat in their vicinity. No sound of gunfire. Men run down the road, passing in front of the al-Duras. No one is hit.
Read it all.
David Gelernter has the full sequence of photo stills, along with more on the consequences of this bit of film making.
The accusation that Israeli forces had killed the boy is widely accepted as fact despite other investigations saying it was staged. It’s hard to believe a father would be involved in the murder of his boy, but anything could be believable in this conflict.
For me, it shows the power of a symbol even if it is shown to be false.
Read the full Commentary article. The death was staged, not just the shootings.
This is an old story.
When I first read about it I couldn’t believe that the Israelis wouldn’t expose this fraud.
But they have been dealing with this type of propaganda for so long that they knew that no one would believe them.
Debating this fraud would get them nowhere, just wider exposure for the propagandists.
And the producers and cameraman from France-2, are they back home sipping a glass of wine before they tuck their own children into bed?
For France and most French citizens, it is, unfortunately, mostly about anti-Semitism. The Jews of Israel could have had live video showing the whole thing to be staged, corroborated by satellite shots and an interview with the still-living boy and his father and it wouldn’t have mattered.
France will not give an even break to Israeli Jews.
Jews are fleeing France while they have the chance.
Demographics are about 90% of everything, and at current projections, France will become a majority-Muslim nation by mid-century.
See the cathedrals of France while you have the chance.
I did read the whole thing. My comment is based on my reading a lot about this. I don’t know who to believe. I’ve read so much in 5 years.
This article is from Commentary published by the American Jewish Committee. I would expect them to say they see it as fake. I would expect WorldNutDaily to say the same.
There is an extensive history into the investigations at wikipedia.
Earlier this year independent (not Jewish, Israeli, or Palestinian) examinations and interviews described the original reports that Israelis shot al-Durrah as “false”, though they reiterated their earlier statements that there was no reason to believe the death of Muhammad al-Durrah had been faked.
in my opinion every thing is staged.may to gain mercy.ted
Funny, just yesterday I happened upon the very matter here:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46286
Why had the MSM not, therefore, advised us incessantly as to the fraud on the part of the Palestininan terrorists that sparked so much bloody human carnage and hate? Does the MSM have a lust for blood and an automatic belief in all that so-called “underdogs” or “downtrodden” folk like the murder-bombing directors and executors?
Why did the MSM, if they knew the footage was a hoax, let it stand, as they did if most of us are unaware? At least I should’ve known as I followed the MSM all the time during the intifada.
Is it too much to expect the truth?
Helplessly Hoping
We learn from Khaleej Times Online that philanthrophists purchased greenhouses that were left behind by withdrawing Israelis for use by impoverished Palestinians.
NEW YORK � American Jewish philanthropists contributed $14 million to buy former Gaza settlers� greenhouses for Palestinians, a news report said yesterday. Without the funds, the Jewish settlers would have destroyed the greenhouses to keep them out of Arab hands as they were forced out of Gaza Strip, The New York Times said. The greenhouses provide jobs for 3,500 Palestinians and had been a lucrative market for fresh produces for Jewish settlers.
That was yesterday. It was good while it lasted. USA Today reports that the greenhouses have been ransacked and destroyed.
NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip (AP) � Palestinians looted dozens of greenhouses on Tuesday, walking off with irrigation hoses, water pumps and plastic sheeting in a blow to fledgling efforts to reconstruct the Gaza Strip. … Palestinian police stood by helplessly Tuesday as looters carted off materials from greenhouses in several settlements, and commanders complained they did not have enough manpower to protect the prized assets. In some instances, there was no security and in others, police even joined the looters, witnesses said.
The real wealth of nation lies with its people, who are forged in part by the expectations we hold of them. The Left has expected so little of those they’ve named as victims: they will not be disappointed.>>> more
fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com
Michael Moore would be very proud of such “film” making.
Right up his mockumentary/fakeumentary style.
I am new to this story, but it seems there is a much simpler way to verify the truth:
Find the boy and the man in the video.
JasperPants
They have blood on their hands… the whole shootin’-match of ’em.
Charles at LGF confronted some France2 guys directly. (Charles’original post goes back earlier than the 1 yr search limit.)
The media juggernaut against Israel is formidable. France2 is owned by the French. govt. I am convinced they are aware of what has happened here.
In June this year, the BBC reran the al-Dura clips: Don’t Panic, I’m Islamic.
Israel should make an issue of this.
UPDATE: A new web site SecondDraft just came up.
This website is devoted to exploring some of the problems and issues that plague modern journalism.
They describe the Pallywood industry as the first project. I haven’t yet figured out if the Al-Dura affair is there.
Pallywood
Pallywood, “According to Palestinian Sources…” a film by Richard Landes & Nidra Poller. International news media extract a few convincing instants of staged scenes – sight-bytes, and present them as news..>>>>> LGF>>
http://seconddraft.org./movies.php
Another milstone for the MSM on its total credibility meltdown.
i worked on the seconddraft website this summer, and yes the issue of the al dura case will be presented. the film that was made, along with evidence, an examination of 5 different scenarios and many, many articles on the topic will be posted on the site on Sept 30, the 5 year anniversary of the event.
furthermore, afterwards the site will be doing a 5 year retrospective of the media’s coverage of the intifadah examining in detail such events as jenin, etc.