Who Shot Mohammed al-Dura?

The Atlantic Monthly ^ | June 2003 | James Fallows

[Publius]

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."

[Bobby777]

In one of the messages Osama bin Laden released after the September 11 attacks

well, that says it all right there, doesn't it?

[Mister Baredog]

Truth means NOTHING in the Arab world. There's very little of it anywhere.

[dennisw]

Pallies are wild men, wild shooters like a ghetto gang when it comes to shooting skills and combat. Pallies shot and killed Al Dura then lied through their teeth and with the help of rats in the Euro-press made full blown propaganda out of it. No autopsy for the kid to see whose bullets hit him.

[Bobby777]

Yep. They should start the blame for this boy's death with Yasser Arafat who initiated the September, 2000 Intifada uprising which has killed about 800 people so far and injured nearly 5,200 ... but no, Yasser Arafat is their "president" ...

[Sloth]

Who Shot Mohammed al-Dura?

I did, sorry. I'll be more careful next time.

[dennisw]

Truth means NOTHING in the Arab world. There's very little of it anywhere.
______________


CORRECT! Truth is a meaningless category for them when they are fighting an enemy and making propaganda.

http://216.239.37.100/search?q=cache:Vr0M5yMMIn0J:www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,721188,00.html+barak+truth+lies+category+arab&hl=en&ie=UTF-8


"Repeatedly during [the] interview," Morris reports, Barak spoke of the Palestinians as products of a culture "in which to tell a lie ... creates no dissonance. They don't suffer from the problem of telling lies that exists in Judaeo-Christian culture. Truth is seen as an irrelevant category. There is only that which serves your purpose and that which doesn't." Curiously, Morris, who did more than anybody to dispel official Israeli lies about the war of 1948, does not record his own reaction to these racist stereotypes.

Polite western society no longer tolerates such characterisations of entire cultures, although I suspect things may have changed, at least in the US, since September 11. But in Israel the public denigration of Arab culture was historically acceptable, since, like all colonial movements, Zionism had to dehumanise the indigenous inhabitants of its country of settlement in order to legitimise their displacement. Thus, as many studies have shown, depictions of the Arabs as conniving, dishonest, lazy, treacherous and murderous were commonplace in Israeli school textbooks, as in much of Israeli literature in general.

[cake_crumb]

I remember the incident and have never believed he was shot by the IDF.

[Publius]

It would certainly appear that your estimation of the situation is correct.

[Mister Baredog]

Yasser Arafat is their "president"

President for "life", HMMMMMM

[Juan Medén]

Truth in Arab cultures? You've got to be kidding! How do you think Baghdad Bob got his job? World Net Daily has been running this story for months. It's good to see the mainstream press catching up.

[dennisw]

Who Shot Mohammed Al-Dura?

Was the Mohammed al-Dura death scene staged for anti-Israeli effect?

The image of Mohammed al-Dura — the Palestinian boy crouched under his father's protective arms, victimized by hostile gunfire in September 2000 — has become a central icon of the latest Intifada and the most recognizable global symbol of "Israeli cruelty."

  Al-Dura's dramatic death filled televisions, magazines, newspapers and computer screens worldwide, and though the media were initially hesitant to declare IDF responsibility for the incident, eventually that understanding was promoted almost universally. Journalist and commentator Tom Gross notes that the al-Dura scene was captured only by France 2 television, who, "so impressed with their film, took the unusual step of making video copies of their footage, editing out bits they didn't like, and distributing the film for free to rival commercial networks."

  The backlash was so great that the IDF conducted an uncharacteristically hasty inquiry and just three days later announced that indeed "it could very well be" that the bullets that struck al-Dura originated from an IDF soldier.

  It now seems likely that the media indictment and IDF semi-confession were mistaken; some evidence even exists that the entire Mohammed al-Dura death scene was staged for anti-Israeli effect.

  An important article by James Fallows, published in this month's The Atlantic, investigates the incident in-depth and concludes that "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."

  To view the article, click here.

 

[Lael]

I remember the incident and have never believed he was shot by the IDF

I don't know who actually shot the boy and his father.

I can say with a certitude gained from examining the frame by frame sequence that the shots did NOT come from the IDF 'police station'.

Key is the concrete 'planter' standing between the crouching boy and father.

The planter shows NO EXIT holes which necessarily MUST be present to pin it on the IDF.

[geedee]

Truth means NOTHING in the Arab world. There's very little of it anywhere.

You and I are gonna have to stop meeting like this. I hate it when I continue to agree with the same FReeper again and again. That fact, by the way, means you're probably wrong more than you're right.

LOL.

But, dammit, you are right. The Arab media is either state-run, state-controlled, or scared witless to write or televise the truth. Just a few short weeks ago we learned Al Jazeera had some folks on So-Dumb's payroll . . . yet that little tidbit has faded away into La-La land and will never be heard again -- especially not from the alphabet networks in the U.S. which are almost as bad as the Arab media.

[walford]

There are some aspects of this issue that require amplification:

1. Theological exclusivism - A doctrine that is peculiar to those who worship the God of Abraham (Christians, Jews, Muslims): Ours is the only god; ours is the only way to worship that god.

2. Saving souls is more important than saving lives [the soul is immortal, the body is a temporary shell]. Killing the infidel is better than leaving him to live as an abomination to the Almighty.

3. Anything that serves the purpose of promoting the spread of the religion in particular is serving the Almighty.

An American woman who married a Muslim immigrant adopted his religion and remained with him in the US. She bore him a couple of children. Her husband told her that he wished to take the kids to his native country for a visit. She made him swear on the Koran that he would bring them back. He did not. She flew to that country and somehow succeeded in bringing him before an Islamic Court. The Court ruled that any promise that is made to the infidel is invalid. Any falsehood that enhances Islam [by in this case bringing children to live permanently in a country that has Sharia Law in effect] is not only not prohibited, but is a blessed act.

This is not peculiar to Islam. What is different is Judaism and Christianity have been modified by being exported, particularly to Europe. Hellenic traditions of logic and objective presentations of argument have been incorporated into the theology. Look at the brilliant reasoning of Thomas Aquinas. Islam, on the other hand has not been so modified and more resembles its original form.

The Middle East has always been a place of limited resources. Living in tolerance with others is considered a sign of weakness. Telling the truth when lying will accomplish the destruction of the infidel is considered a sin.

We must understand this and be grateful for our European heritage.

[kevao]

Who Shot Mohammed al-Dura?

It was Kristin.

[OrioleFan]

A friend of mine worked for Immigration and Naturalization. She said the Arabs were interesting in that they would "lie even when they didn't have to."

[logic]

But yet we expect Israel to negotiate in good faith with these people to achieve peace while we fight wars to oust the tyrants we dislike. Is that a double standard or what?!?

[walford]

The U.S. State Department has been repeatedly questioned why it is acceptable for the U.S. to target Osama bin Laden with smart bombs and ‘provocative’ for Israel to do the same to terrorists who are known to be responsible for killing civilians there.

http://mason.gmu.edu/~walford/ArabIsraeli.htm

[kevkrom]

This is not peculiar to Islam. What is different is Judaism and Christianity have been modified by being exported

You've got to be kidding. First of all, one of the Ten Commandments probits lying. That alone covers both Judaism and Christian beliefs. From the Christian standpoint, deceit as a sin is reinforced in the New Testament when a couple are struck down for falesly claiming a contribution they made to their church.

Judaism and Christianity held truth as a virtue and deceit as a sin long before any cross-pollenization with European philosophy.