Posted on 09/12/2005 9:47:50 AM PDT by SirLinksalot
Who Shot Mohammed al-Dura? By James Fallows The Atlantic | May 16, 2003
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 name Mohammed al-Dura is barely known in the United States. Yet to a billion people in the Muslim world it is an infamous symbol of grievance against Israel and—because of this country's support for Israel —against the United States as well.
Al-Dura was the twelve-year-old Palestinian boy shot and killed during an exchange of fire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian demonstrators on September 30, 2000. The final few seconds of his life, when he crouched in terror behind his father, Jamal, and then slumped to the ground after bullets ripped through his torso, were captured by a television camera and broadcast around the world. Through repetition they have become as familiar and significant to Arab and Islamic viewers as photographs of bombed-out Hiroshima are to the people of Japan—or as footage of the crumbling World Trade Center is to Americans. Several Arab countries have issued postage stamps carrying a picture of the terrified boy. One of Baghdad's main streets was renamed The Martyr Mohammed Aldura Street. Morocco has an al-Dura Park. In one of the messages Osama bin Laden released after the September 11 attacks and the subsequent U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, he began a list of indictments against "American arrogance and Israeli violence" by saying, "In the epitome of his arrogance and the peak of his media campaign in which he boasts of 'enduring freedom,' Bush must not forget the image of Mohammed al-Dura and his fellow Muslims in Palestine and Iraq. If he has forgotten, then we will not forget, God willing."
But almost since the day of the episode evidence has been emerging in Israel, under controversial and intriguing circumstances, to indicate that the official version of the Mohammed al-Dura story is not true. It now appears that the boy cannot have died in the way reported by most of the world's media and fervently believed throughout the Islamic world. Whatever happened to him, he was not shot by the Israeli soldiers who were known to be involved in the day's fighting—or so I am convinced, after spending a week in Israel talking with those examining the case. The exculpatory evidence comes not from government or military officials in Israel, who have an obvious interest in claiming that their soldiers weren't responsible, but from other sources. In fact, the Israel Defense Forces, or IDF, seem to prefer to soft-pedal the findings rather than bring any more attention to this gruesome episode. The research has been done by a variety of academics, ex-soldiers, and Web-loggers who have become obsessed with the case, and the evidence can be cross-checked.
Forgot to add, this is an excerpt. Click on the link for a complete analysis/report.
Commentary has a detailed deconstrution of what the call "the almost perfect video lie".
It is a testament I think the willing complicity of an anti-Israeli press, particularly in France where the lie was perpetrated.
I found a site a long time ago regarding this incident and the evidence and kept the link:
http://www.masada2000.org/al-dura.html
...interesting stuff.
Arafat had been planning the Intifada long before that boy got shot.
They just used Sharon's visit to temple mount as an excuse.
When Arafat wouldn't take the offer which would of given them the gaza strip anyway, large sections of the west bank, and lots of other benefits, basically over 95% of what he was asking, he proved that he was all talk and no walk. His and his organization very existence was based on continuing the violence and attacking Israel.
The palestinians likely shot him themselves to get good video to stir their people up with.
Sorry. I should have added a "graphic picture warning" to my link above. It has been a while since I looked at the site.
The entire plight of the arabs in gaza and west bank is built on lies and fueled by propaganda in the middle east news.
Its a reflection of the fact that most of the middle-east, poorly educated and illiterate will accept anything told to them, no matter how outrageous, and believe it. The countries of the middle-east have nutured this to keep their people from questioning their governments. Keeping them fixated on hating the jews and the west. Blaming us for anything wrong in their lives. Promoting victimhood for financial and political gain. And they all buy it, hook, line, and sinker.
Sadly, I know there is going to be no stop to this and its only going to get worse. They are going to keep attacking and taking, until someone decides to push back, and when they do, its going to be "wahh-wahhh, victimhood, victimhood" and the MSM will be there to cover it all with their usual biased, pro-muslim reporting.
One of the links talks about how this is the norm for Muslims to sacrifice their own to try and get world sympathy.
That was how it was in Bosnia. The muslims would complain of mortar attacks directed at them killing muslims. the problem was the mortars were launched from their area, i.e. straight up in the air only to fall directly on their own people.
SCUM that need to be eradicated.
It kind of reminds me how there were those mysterious explosions in Baghdad just prior to the Americans arriving. They were always out in residential areas (with no targets worth a USAF bomb)and of course the cameras seemed to be there before the dust had even settled.
Pali terrorists sacrifice their young just for media attention.
Yes. Yes. It is the evil, Zionist menace that keep the Muslims languishing in poverty-stricken squalor, not their "Islamic" government leaders.
Democrat claptrap. Israel and ispiglam are at war.Atrocities happen in war. If the shooter were my enemy I would treat him like any other enemy. Kill him. If he was my comerade I would ask him not to do that again.
The members of this thread would fit well onto a california schoolboard. If you dislike history , change it. While you are at it don't forget the 60s when the Liberty was straffed by the israeli, oops! make that Afghani air force.
You are becoming what I despise.
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