Mohammed al-Dura - Israel's greatest PR failure
Despite proof that footage of his death was meddled with, al-Dura remains a symbol of Israel's brutality.
By Reuven Pedatzur Tags: Israel news Gaza warThe photograph of Mohammed and Jamal al-Dura crouching behind a cement-filled barrel in a fruitless effort to avoid being hit by the bullets of Israeli soldiers became a symbol of the cruelty and brutality of Israel. It established the image of the Israel Defense Forces as a bloodthirsty army, operating on the basis of unacceptable norms. At the end of the 55-second footage aired by the France 2 television station, reporter Charles Enderlin declared that "Mohammed is dead," opening "the floodgates to a torrent of vengeance," as Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff wrote in their book "The Seventh War."
Mohammed al-Dura became a martyr, a symbol of the struggle of the Palestinian people against a ruthless occupier. Postage stamps bearing an image of the father and son were issued throughout the Arab world, and streets were named after the boy.
The story of Mohammed al-Dura was a tremendous propaganda victory for the Palestinians. But it was also Israel's biggest public relations failure, and it is unclear why. There is plenty of evidence showing that the story about the boy's death was a show skillfully orchestrated by the Palestinians.
What is troubling in this affair is that official Israel ignored the testimonies and investigations that began piling up immediately after the incident. The documentary by the German journalist Esther Shapira, and the investigation by French businessman Philippe Karsenty, raise suspicions that Palestinian cameraman Talal Abu Rahma who shot the footage that was delivered to France 2 meddled with the story. And many others were party to this effort.
The cameraman's testimony is full of contradictions. He says that "the soldiers shot the two in cold blood for 45 minutes." However, if the IDF soldiers wanted to hit Mohammed and his father in "cold blood" they could have killed them in less than a minute. Regarding the question of how many bullets were fired toward the two, Abu Rahma said "at least 400." The wall at the site of the incident clearly shows eight holes.
Karsenty managed to acquire the raw footage of Abu Rahma, including the 10 seconds of film after Enderlin declares that "Mohammed is dead," which shows the child raising his hand and peering toward the camera. Nowhere in the footage are bullets seen hitting the bodies of father and son, even though the father claims he was hit by 12 bullets and his son by three. No blood was found at the site of the incident.
Mohammed al-Dura was buried in a funeral attended by masses. However, the child who was buried was brought to Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip at 10 A.M., according to the testimony of a doctor who admitted him. The shots at the Netzarim junction began only at 2 P.M., and Mohammed was taken away from the site at 3 P.M. In the photographs shown by a Gaza pathologist, a child who had been hit by bullets is seen, but his injuries are not the sort that Jamal spoke of. While the father says that Mohammed was hit in his right leg, the boy at Shifa was hit in his left leg. A biometric identification expert compared the photograph of the child who was buried and the child at the Netzarim junction, and found that they are different.
The father, Jamal, claims that 12 bullets hit his body, and he proudly shows off the scars on his arms. However, Shapira found Dr. Yehuda David, who says that he operated on him six years before the incident and that the scars are the result of knife wounds.
Nonetheless, official Israel is silent. A golden opportunity to challenge the credibility of the Palestinian version on one of the most formative events in the history of the conflict is being missed, and it is hard to understand why. The IDF, more than once, has sinned in the excessive use of military force, which leads to the death of innocents. But when it turns out that in the Dura affair IDF soldiers did not hit a child and his father, those responsible for public relations at the IDF are silent, as is the Foreign Ministry. Thus Israel relinquishes the media front to the Palestinians, who are taking advantage of it with sophistication while using television stations that sympathize with their cause such as France 2.
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Reuven Pedatzur
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I studied the material and Karsenty's presentation is very convincing.
I have to say that the talkbacks on Haaretz are very disturbing. I thought Jpost had a lot of Anti-Israel commenters, but Haaretz is about 100 times worse. As to the Al-Dura incident. It is definitely Israels greatest PR blunder. The evidence is very clear from the videos and testimony by Karesnity and others of the pure Propaganda of the incident. Anyone denying this just needs to read some of the more recent articles about the court battle going on between Karsenity and France 2 in France recently. The court found the lack of clear evidence that Israel was responsible, and awarded Karsenity za symbolic victory over France 2. To the person claiming to have seen the full 45 minutes of video footage, I have to call BS. In the France court Case, Karsenity was able to get the court to demand France 2 provide the complete unedited footage, and surprise, surprise, what they got was a video of approximately 3 minutes in length. Much different than the 45 minutes you claim to have seen.
If they did, they'd have to question their own peace mantra, and admit that blood libels against Jews are a way of life among our neighbours, that nazi eliminationist hatred for the Jews has found an inheritor in the muslim world (after being an allied of the Germans then). ALL pogroms, anti-Jewish violence, and massacres in Israel, just as in Europe, were started by blood libels and wild accusations against the Jews: some of the victim of the Arab pogroms of 1929, when the Mufti circulated fabricated pictures of Jews attempting to Al Aqsa, just as in 2000 they used the SAME libel, which needed the "saucier" and "spicier" fabricated image of a dying arab child in his father's arms.
Talal Abu Rahma is a liar, which should be nothing new - Arabs often lie about Israel or Israeli actions. Enderlin is, at best, a useful idiot, and yet another liar at worst. Western media has been duped by the Arab media and their cronies all along. There is practically no independent and honest media in much of the Arab and larger Muslim world. The boy was NOT killed by Israelis on that fateful day for Israel, when one of the worst blood libels was perpetrated against the Jews, resulting in hundreds, if not thousands, of deaths - of both Israelis and Arabs. But since when did Arabs care for the lives of the Jews - or even for their own brethren, for that matter? See much more at www.SecondDraft and www.TheAugeanStables.com - plenty of well-documented evidence there, which is impossible to refute. It only supports Esther Shapira's findings and those of Karsenty, the French ballistics expert, Nahum Shahaf, et al. Wikipedia CANNOT be considered a reliable source even by a stretch
Not only the IDF and the Foreign Ministry are responsible for Israel's greatest Public Relation failure but also Haaretz. Did you read the "confession" of Chanoch Marmori former editor of Haaretzin in 2000 ! http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/12/former-haaretz-editor-on-al-dura.html The truth is that nobody dared to investigate any more because of the article by Anat Cygielman dated Nov 7 2000 !!! http://web.archive.org/web/20080719131233/http://www.ajds.org.au/intifada/netzarim.htm We tried to run away from Al-Dura and we got Goldstone !
Enderlin is also very close to the former spokesman of the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry and, at present, the Israeli amabassador in Paris. Once more a good reason for Israeli officals not to support Karsenty's fight, which is a shame ! Same happened wich the American Jewish Congrss representative in Paris, who convince Sarkozy's counsellors not ot help Karsenty. This representative has been appointed now as the personal envoyee of President Sarkozy for the bilateral economic development betwwen France anf the PA !! No comments nedded...
Many people know that Enderlin is a relative of President Peres and that he has many influent people among his relations (professional and private in France and in Israel). But this should not be a reason to forgive a behaviour which in others countries should be considered as a betray!!!! please forgive my bad English
Incredible! At last, israeli main stream media realize that there exists something called Pallywood, i.e. media operations organized by Palestinians, and building whole fantasies on doctored footage and pictures, and western journalists who swallow them hook, line and sinker! It is high time that Israel take notince of the fact that on the ground, the Idf is sure to win, but in the media, Israel is losing and has been losing for many years. It is also high time that illusions regarding freedom of the press in the Palestinian territories be scattered : how many western journalist speak arabic? how many western journalist rely on the services of minders to interview Palestinians? how many western journalists live full time in the Palestinian territories? How many western journalists are busier telling stories they like than reporting and checking facts?
Simply shocking and quite blindly written. Such practices and delusion will deter the Israelis away from the truth, time to burst the bubble you're living in and face the reality.
The comments made to this article are a farce. I have seen the footage of the Enderlin film and the reports presented in the French Court case. The shots could have not been fired from the Israeli Tower and the boy at the end of the footage was moving his hand. This whole made up propaganda film was accepted all around the world, because it was a way to condemn Israel.
This author's disassociation from reality is disturbing: 1 - Mohammad Durra, is, unlike Elvis Presley or Tupac, actually dead. 2 - The Palestinians did not plant the two in the way of Israeli bullets and get a camera man to film the results. 3 - Forty minutes of unedited footage played frame by frame allows one to count, clearly, at least four hundred bullets whizzing past the two (mind the sarcasm) 4 - Had the IDF not raised the site where the two were hiding to the ground shortly afterward perhaps an independent investigation could have been done. 5 - The reason that the IDF is silent about the matter is because, to all but the most delusional, this is a violent example of the brutality of the occupation. 6 - A biometric identification expert checked a photograph? Really? Did the Palestinians substitute Durra's body and replace it with an alien from area 51 in time for 2012 while faking the moon landing and flying two jets by remote control into the twin towers?
A report presented to a French court by an independent ballistics expert maintains that the death of Mohammed al-Dura, if he died, could not have been the result of Israeli gunfire, corroborating claims that the shocking footage was doctored. The ballistics expert, Jean-Claude Schlinger, presented his conclusions after reviewing the footage, which shows Dura and his father cowering by a wall after being caught in the crossfire between Palestinian gunmen and Israel Defense Forces soldiers at the Netzarim junction. In his report, Schlinger wrote, "If Jamal [the boy's father] and Mohammed al-Dura were indeed struck by shots, then they could not have come from the Israeli position, from a technical point of view, but only from the direction of the Palestinian position." He also wrote that it is very possible that the footage was doctored. Schlinger has served as an expert on ballistic and forensic evidence in French courts for 20 years.
Say you make a big show with convincing evidence that it was some other Palestinian boy who got killed, and that the newsman who told the story in wartime got it wrong, and so on. The net result is more publicity about Israeli soldiers killing Palestinians. If you claim this particular story was faked, there are thousands of others. You can't deny that Israeli soldiers have killed thousands of Palestinian civilians. You can argue that they killed those people humanely and mercifully, but it's hard to sell that. So the better strategy is to try to minimize the discussion. Don't respond. Bring up something else entirely. Try to keep photographers out of Palestine, and particularly keep the media out. Keep out aid workers. Talk about them being proxies for other enemy nations. Talk up what a threat they are. The less discussion the better, because there's no way to kill Palestinian civilians without looking like killers. The Israeli government is doing the right thing on this topic.
The stories of both deaths as reported have some inconsistencies and yet those stories have become accepted as the truth in the Western world. But in this case, Iran has a clear advantage over Israel. It can exist (indeed, it has grown stronger) while being shunned by the West. Can Israel?
You write about Karsenty and forget to tell the readers that Karsenty took the information from Metula Press Agency. Any proof can be requested from Metula Press Agency and I am sure that they will be more than pleased to see their work recognized and France2 Television and Charles Enderlin officially condemned. Charles Enderlin should have his Press card revoked since long !
doesn't really matter what isrl wants to present the world the boy is still dead. no matter how much they try to make everything a lie, the boy is still dead. the man says he heard about 400 gun shots, isrl says there r only 8 holes in the wall, it doesn't matter the boy is still dead. the man tried to stop the bullets, but the boy is still dead. no matter how much they try to demonize the pals, the boy is still dead. God rest his soul.
Israel, why does the arab muslim world hate us so much? We have no idea why. Could you please illuminate this problem for us. Is there anything that the United States is doing, or anything that we support which would deserve the emnity of Arab Muslims?
it happened just like in the film....the rest is zionist attempts to covr it up...for example the german film group was paid by the zionist entity to find something wrong with it....and the rest is you feable attempts to deny the truth...you people are slipping...used to be harder to catch
From the Wikipedia article: ~~ Enderlin [Channel 2's Israel Bureau chief], himself a Jew and an Israeli, has expressed astonishment at the idea the shooting was faked. "You really believe that a father and his child would be playing ... right in front of an Israeli position, in front of a dozen Israeli soldiers. Live bullets are being fired, and they're acting?" he asked Esther Schapira. "You believe that?"[158] He and Abu Rahma have offered to take polygraph tests if a suitably independent inquiry is established, and if the soldiers at the IDF outpost take one too. Jamal has said he is willing to have his son's body disinterred.[35] ~~ There's an easy way to prove your lovely little conspiracy theory, though: find Muhammad al-Durrah! We know he existed. There are records! Surely, you and your fellow conspiracists can figure out where the family is hiding the kid!
Other then human bombs, which the Palestinians have, perhaps temporarily, sworn off, propoganda is their only effective weapon; and they excel at it. Staging deaths, faking massacres, putting their people in line of fire to incur causalties and thus win public sympathy - this are well established techniques. Other then sacrificing their own I don't blame them for using these techniques of the weak; however truth is truth and lies are lies and the Israelis should call them out.
The Cast Lead murders articulated in Goldstone trump a lot of them
As a Frenchman that follows well the tale of A-Dura (sic), I can but tell you to what extent the basis of this story consists of lies. However, these shameful Jews at France 2 cannot afford to give up one inch in their fight against Israel. One thing you wouldn't dare to tell: Israel is ready to send Mohammed (or his father?) for examinations from Gaza to France but... France 2 just won't accept yet.