TV Documentary: Palestinian 'Martyr' Likely Shot By Palestinians
By Patrick Goodenough
CNSNews.com Pacific Rim Bureau Chief
April 02, 2002
(CNSNews.com) - Eighteen months after a 12-year-old boy cowering alongside his father against a Gaza wall became a symbol of the Palestinian uprising, a German television documentary has once again questioned the conventional wisdom that Mohammed al-Dura was shot by an Israeli rather than Palestinian bullet.
Al-Dura died when he and his father were trapped during a gun battle between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen at the Netzarim junction at the Gaza-Israel border on Sept. 30, 2000, in the early days of the Palestinian uprising (intifada).
Footage of the boy's death, filmed by a Palestinian cameraman working for France2 Television, aired around the world, prompting a barrage of condemnation of Israel.
For Palestinians, al-Dura became a symbol of the intifada: the footage was shown repeatedly on Palestinian Authority television; stills taken from it appeared as posters across the PA-ruled areas; and a "commercial" was even made, featuring an image of the boy beckoning other Palestinian children to follow him on the path to "martyrdom."
As recently as last December, PA Chairman Yasser Arafat was invoking al-Dura's name in a speech praising "martyrs" who die in the struggle against Israel.
Israel initially apologized for the death, but a subsequent Israeli Defense Force (IDF) inquiry and reconstruction, taking into account angles of fire and the bullet holes in the wall above and behind al-Dura, raised strong doubts that an Israeli bullet had killed him. The PA did not allow an autopsy on the body.
An Israeli engineer with weapons technology experience who participated in the IDF inquiry concluded that al-Dura could not have been killed by the Israelis. He cited a number of reasons, including the fact that there was a concrete barrel protecting him and his father from the line of fire that would have come from an Israeli outpost.
Indeed the engineer, Yosef Doriel, said the evidence showed that al-Dura had been shot from straight ahead, by a Palestinian gunman directly behind the cameraman who caught the action. He went further, arguing that the shooting was a deliberate attempt to create a martyr, on film, for the Palestinian cause.
The IDF in the end made a far more circumspect finding. "A comprehensive investigation conducted in the last weeks casts serious doubt that the boy was hit by Israeli fire," said Maj.-Gen. Yom Tov Samia, head of the IDF's Southern Command in Oct. 2000. "It is quite plausible that the boy was hit by Palestinian bullets in the course of the exchange of fire that took place in the area."
The PA rejected the Israeli stance, and the Palestinian view of the incident continues to be the accepted one. Just last weekend, an international wire service report said al-Dura was killed, "apparently by Israeli fire" - without any reference to the point of dispute.
But a documentary called "Three Bullets and a Dead Child," which aired recently on the German television station Allgemeine Deutsche Rundfunkanstalten, has raised fresh doubts.
Documentary producer Esther Shapira said a year-long investigation into what she first assumed was undoubtedly an Israeli killing gave rise to questions, including whether it would have been physically possible for the Israeli gunfire to have hit the boy, and why the PA never investigated the incident.
It was also noted that while the cameraman obtained six minutes of film, only 50 seconds of it was broadcast.
"According to our findings, it is much more likely it was a Palestinian bullet, not an Israeli bullet, that killed him," she told Israel radio shortly after the program was broadcast.
Shapira's documentary prompted numerous "violent reactions," including threats, accusations that she worked for the Mossad, and anti-Semitic barbs, Germany's Die Welt newspaper reported.
Senior Israeli diplomat Daniel Shek said Tuesday he welcomed the documentary insofar as it raised questions. "I see that as a positive thing - I think doubt is a very important thing in the world of journalism."
"When the tragedy happened, there was too much certainty and not enough doubt," he said by phone from Jerusalem.
"With all the importance of this documentary, it unfortunately doesn't change one sad fact, and that is that an innocent child died for no good reason.
"That should be kept in mind by everyone, especially those who over the months of the intifada have used this tragedy in order to give a boost to their propaganda campaign, by making Mohammed al-Dura a myth, a symbol."
Shek said that, with the lack of opportunity to carry out a full investigation because the PA had refused an autopsy, the most one could say was that "there must remain a very strong doubt, an uncertainty of the origin of the bullet that killed that child."
And noting claims that al-Dura may have been killed deliberately by a Palestinian gunman, he added: "As a human being, I refuse to consider that a possibility, unless somebody has solid proof. I prefer the thesis that Mohammed al-Dura was the victim of a tragic accident, of which the origin is not known."
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