Promoting the Al Dura Myth: The Role of Amnesty and HRW

Promoting critical debate and accountability of Human Rights NGOs in the Arab Israeli Conflict. Via NGO Monitor:

The French court’s dismissal of the libel case brought by France 2 TV, in response to evidence that the death of Muhammad al-Dura was staged, has increased the examination of the NGO campaigns that propelled this issue.

The unquestioned repetition of claims by Palestinian “eyewitnesses” without further investigation reflects the standard pattern used by Amnesty International and HRW in condemning Israel for alleged human rights violations.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report that labeled al Dura’s alleged death as “a case of indiscriminate and illegal use of force.” HRW’s lengthy report based on “the accounts of eyewitnesses” simply repeated the claims of the Palestinian cameraman for France 2, without any independent verification.

HRW’s press release (November 21 2000) ostensibly condemned a Palestinian bombing attack on an Israeli school bus, in which a number of teachers and children were killed and injured. But most of this document refers to the “indiscriminate or excessive use of force by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF),” citing the al Dura allegations, and anonymous witnesses.

Amnesty International claimed that al Dura was deliberately targeted, and repeated Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) claims, with no supporting evidence.

Amnesty also used this unverified case as evidence of “long-standing patterns of human rights violation suffered almost exclusively by Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli forces.”

The image of al-Dura was a central icon at the NGO Forum of the 2001 Durban Conference, in which both NGO superpowers played a central role. The father, Jamal, was a featured speaker in Durban.

Background:

On September 30, 2000, journalist Charles Enderlin from France 2 TV reported that Israeli soldiers shot and killed Muhammad al-Dura, a 12-year old Palestinian. Iconic images of al-Dura's death, filmed by France 2 cameraman Talal Abu Rahmeh, were shown worldwide, inflaming the Palestinian violence, and this was used to justify further attacks. Based entirely on this single source, major news organizations repeated the accusation and blamed Israel for “deliberately target[ing]” the child. An Israeli investigation showed that al Dura could not have been killed by the IDF (based in part on the angles made by the bullet holes), France 2 refused to release the unedited video footage, and Richard Landes suggested that the incident was staged in the framework of “Pallywood”. Philippe Karsenty charged France 2 with inventing and then covering up the al Dura myth, and on May 21, 2008, a French court ruled that he was not libelous in his criticism. The court also emphasized the evidence that Abu Rahma could not be considered “perfectly credible”, given his partisanship.

From the beginning, the politicized NGO network involved in human rights issues promoted the al Dura images, which were central icons at the NGO Forum of the 2001 Durban Conference. And, the father, Jamal, was a featured speaker who was brought to Durban in order to amplify the impact. Many Palestinian NGOs joined the campaign, in close cooperation with NGO superpowers, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. In their publications on this issue, the authors of these reports never questioned the accuracy of the claims or the lack of credible witnesses. This incident was also featured prominently in false claims that Israel was “deliberately targeting” Palestinian children.

Human Rights Watch

In a reported published in October 2000, Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned Israel for the alleged death of Mohammed Al-Dirra, “a case of indiscriminate and illegal use of force.” The HRW report claimed to have compiled the report based “on the accounts of eyewitnesses,” but the only one that is mentioned is the Palestinian cameraman for France 2. HRW extensively repeated Talal Abu Rahmeh’s claims word for word, without any independent verification.

HRW also issued a press release on November 21 2000, headlined “Israel/Palestinian Authority: Gaza Bus Bombing Condemned -- All deliberate attacks on children must be investigated, prosecuted”. This statement was ostensibly issued to condemn a Palestinian bombing attack on an Israeli school bus, in which a number of teachers and children were killed and injured. However, HRW devoted over half the document to a condemnation of “indiscriminate or excessive use of force by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF),” citing the al Dura allegations, and anonymous “witnesses”.

Amnesty International

In 6 separate reports and publications between October 2000 and November 2001, Amnesty International repeated the allegation that Israel had killed Al Dura. Amnesty International’s major report Broken Lives – A Year of Intifada (April 2001), included a section headlined “Killings by Israelis”, which highlighted the iconic photo of al Dura and his father. The text dismissed the IDF’s investigation, but quotes extensively from a “sworn affidavit” from Talal Abu Rahma, provided by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), version of the events. Amnesty concludes that Israel was responsible for the killing: “Photographs taken by journalists…showed a pattern of bullet holes in the wall…where the two were sheltering. This suggested that Jamal and Muhammad al-Dura were targeted by the Israeli post opposite where they were cowering” (page 16, emphasis added).

Other Amnesty publications exploit this incident to condemn Israel, repeating the allegation that Al Dura “was shot dead by Israeli soldiers” and demonstrating “one of the many long-standing patterns of human rights violation suffered almost exclusively by Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli forces.”

For an appendix of Amnesty and HRW statements on Al Dura, click here.

Al-Dura Trial: Karsenty Wins in Paris

The truth emerges about Palestinianism, Palestiniasts, Pallywood and the al-Dura hoax. Via HonestReporting. com:

The iconic images of Mohammad al-Dura's alleged death in Gaza inflamed Palestinian sentiment and provoked terrible bloodshed. Despite the evidence that Israel was not responsible for firing the bullets that hit al-Dura, and doubts as to the credibility of the footage taken from the scene, this libel has continued to prevail.

HonestReporting has brought you the news directly from the trial of Philippe Karsenty, who accused France 2 and its reporter Charles Enderlin of knowingly broadcasting doctored footage of the al-Dura incident.

To recall, France 2 successfully sued Karsenty who then appealed against the verdict. At the appeal trial, some of the raw footage taken during that fateful day in Gaza was aired to a packed courtroom that witnessed numerous examples of "Pallywood" staging of events. France 2, however, only made available some 18 out of 27 minutes of footage that apparently exists.

Evidently, these scenes and the unreliability of France 2's cameraman Talal Abu Rahma has convinced the French appeals judge. Philippe Karsenty has won the appeal against his libel conviction.

Media commentator Tom Gross, who has previously reviewed (see our exclusive video) the al-Dura affair for HonestReporting, said in response to the verdict:

Today's ruling shows there are serious doubts about France 2's version of events, and that the entire world press - including the American TV networks - were irresponsible in being so quick to take at face value the claims of a local Palestinian cameraman working for France 2, a cameraman who has admitted his partisanship.

Karsenty said in a statement released after his victory:

The al-Dura lie is an assault on our ability to think, to criticize, to evaluate, and finally to reject information - especially the right to reject information on which we base our most cherished assumptions. One of Europe's most cherished assumptions is that Israel is a vicious Nazi-like entity that deliberately murders Palestinian Arab children. Moreover, polls conducted in Europe have identified Israel as the greatest threat to world peace, greater than Iran and North Korea, Pakistan and Syria. The al-Dura hoax is one of the pillars on which these assumptions rely.

Now it is time for France 2 to acknowledge that it created and is continuing to perpetuate the worst anti-Semitic libel of our era.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

At the time of writing, the full judgment had not been released to the media. However, Take A Pen's Endre Mozes was in the courtroom delivering firsthand accounts of proceedings to HonestReporting. Mozes spoke with some of the lawyers involved who had seen a copy of the judgment prior to its forthcoming release.
Amongst his observations and the comments from these lawyers was the court's acceptance of the argument that protagonists operating in non-democratic regimes such as the Palestinian areas are inherently less reliable and should be carefully scrutinized as should have been the case with Talal Abu Rahma.

Essentially, the court decided the level of doubt associated with the al-Dura footage warrants deep analysis. It is perfectly legitimate to question it, not libelous.

Philippe Karsenty's efforts have opened up France 2 to scrutiny and serves as an example of how the media should be held accountable for their material and the consequences of their reporting. France 2's al-Dura footage has been shown in court to be unreliable and possibly fake. Along with a number of investigations concluding that Israel was not responsible for the bullets that allegedly killed the boy, the icon that is al-Dura - the edifice upon which so much hostility has been directed at Israel, aided and abetted by a willing media - comes toppling down.

WHERE IS THE COVERAGE?

So far, despite access to Reuters and Associated Press wire reports, only Jewish and Israeli media have published the trial verdict. The mainstream media has regrettably remained silent. Is the same media that did so much to propagate the al-Dura libel without verifying the facts now too embarrassed to admit that they may have erred?

If your local media outlet has not covered this story, write to it and ask why not. While Philippe Karsenty has had his day in court, the State of Israel and all of those victims of the terror and violence fueled by images of al-Dura deserve nothing less.

Some of our own subscribers were not even in their teens in 2000 when the al-Dura case occurred and may not even remember it. Some of those who do remember have questioned why we should continue to pursue this case several years later.

We believe that, irrespective of how long it may take, the truth will emerge. Accountability and justice do not dissipate over time. HonestReporting will continue to hold the media to account and to revisit those cases where an injustice has been done.

COMING SOON - THE BIG LIES

HonestReporting will be bringing you the court's full judgment as part of a brand new interactive resource - The Big Lies. Using multimedia resources, including audio and video footage, al-Dura is but one of a number of case studies where untrue accusations have been reported as facts. This exciting resource will enable you to examine the lies, how the media presented them, and the real facts, as well as further resources to counter the next "Big Lie".

French Ballistics Expert in al-Dura Libel Case: Gaza Child Wasn't Killed by Israeli Gunfire

What we already knew. More compelling evidence on the Mohammed al-Dura hoax. From French Ballistics Expert in al-Dura Libel Case: Gaza Child Wasn't Killed by Israeli Gunfire:

A report presented to a French court last week by independent ballistics expert Jean-Claude Schlinger maintains that the death of Mohammed al-Dura, a Palestinian child shot in Gaza on the first day of the intifada in September 2000, could not have been the result of Israeli gunfire, corroborating claims that the footage shown on France 2 television was doctored. 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." Schlinger has served as an adviser on ballistic and forensic evidence in French courts for 20 years.

Video: Virgins of Paradise Music Video Returns to PA TV

It was proven that the Mohamad al-Dura tape was a hoax, so the Muslim barbarians have to come up with a new angle. Hence, the brainwashing begins anew. From Virgins of Paradise Music Video Returns to PA TV:

A music video depicting a martyr for Allah being greeted in Paradise by the Dark Eyed Maidens (Virgins) has returned to PA television. The clip portrays a woman being shot in the back by Israeli soldiers, who is immediately transported to Paradise where she joins other maidens wearing identical long white gowns, all joyously dancing. The next scenes depict her male friend being shot by Israeli soldiers and transported to heaven, where all the "Maidens" greet him. It was broadcast several times a day during the PA terror war (2000-2005).

Wounds of Mohamed al Dura's Father Date Back to 1992, Surgeon Reveals

Excerpted from Pajama Media:

Jamal al Dura, who claims that Israelis fired at him and his son in 2000, was in fact injured by axe blade and not bullets in1992, according to an Israeli surgeon who performed reconstructive surgery on the wounds two years later. PJM’s Nidra Poller reports on the latest startling development in the mother of all fauxtography cases:

The wounds purportedly sustained on September 30 2000 by Jamal al Dura “target of gunfire from the Israeli positions”—in the words of France 2 bureau chief Charles Enderlin—were in fact incurred in 1992. Jamal, identified as the father of Mohamed al Dura, is one of the two living witnesses to the incident that triggered the “Al Aqsa Intifada.” The al Dura news report has been the subject of controversy for seven years.

Philippe Karsenty, who is appealing his 2006 defamation conviction—for declaring on his Media-Ratings site that the al Dura news report was a blatant fake—obtained medical records proving that Jamal’s wounds were treated by an Israeli surgeonin 1994. Now the surgeon, Yehuda David, has confirmed this information on a December 12 newscast on Israel’s Arutz 10 TV.

Jean Tsadik of Metula News Agency resumed the Hebrew-language newscast for French-speaking readers. According to the Metula release, Jamal al Dura declared on medical records in 1992 that Palestinian militia had attacked him with axes.

Doctors at Gaza’s Shifa Hospital* were able to save his life buthe lost the use of his right hand because they could not repaira ruptured tendon in the forearm.

Now we learn that Jamal used the arm restored by Israeli surgeons to act out the blood libel that provoked the murderous rage that killed countless Israeli civilians, including courageous doctors who had treated Palestinians with the same generosity he experienced.

On November 14th lying scumbag Charles Enderlin stood before a French court and walked the judges through 18 minutes of raw footage filmed by Talal Abu Rahmah, including the 59-second al Dura shots. He had an explanation for every incongruity. When will he realize that he is walking down a gangplank?

* Images of a dead child “identified” as Mohamed al Dura but brought in several hours before the alleged shooting occurred, were shot at Shifa Hospital.

——
Pajamas Media has an AL DURA CHONOLOGY to give background on the hoax.

Did French Television Play Fast and Loose with Journalistic Rules in the Al-Dura Case?

The French embrace Arabism and mendacity. Via Did French Television Play Fast and Loose with Journalistic Rules in the Al-Dura Case?:

Did France 2 reporter Charles Enderlin play fast and loose with journalistic rules in order to make his report more dramatic? In the media libel case, the most startling new evidence to emerge from the screening in court of the raw footage is that at the moment when millions of television viewers were led to believe Mohammed al-Dura had died, the boy was in fact alive. The last frames - which come after the heart-rending sequence that concluded the broadcast version - show him lifting his arm and looking towards the camera.

There was some surprise that the "rushes" did not last the full 27 minutes as originally reported, but only 18. According to Enderlin, who was in court, this was because the original cassette had been transferred at the time to a master copy in accordance with standing practice, and several minutes of uninteresting material had been wiped.

Gambling with a Lie: Enderlin Pulls a Rosemary Woods on Al-Dura Video

For Muslims who hate Jews, lying and fabricating is a way of life. From Gambling with a Lie: Enderlin Pulls a Rosemary Woods on Al-Dura Video via Daily Alert:

Rosemary Woods was President Richard Nixon's secretary, who was asked to take the blame for the missing 18.5 minutes of tape that had been cut from the famous "Nixon Tapes" before releasing them to the grand jury investigating Watergate.

On Wednesday, France 2 correspondent Charles Enderlin presented in court the "rushes" of Talal abu Rahmah who had filmed the shooting of Mohammed al-Dura in Gaza.

I had seen the rushes and could check to see if they were, indeed, what I had seen earlier. Enderlin presented an edited version in which he took out at least three minutes, and several scenes that I distinctly remember seeing.

In the U.S. that's called tampering with evidence, obstruction of justice, and perjury. In France, we'll find out what it's called.

French Court Screens Al-Durah Video Footage

The truth always comes out. 9 minutes of film are missing. From French Court Screens Al-Durah Video Footage:

I am in Paris where I have attended the Court of Appeal special session called to witness the 27 minutes of hitherto unseen footage of the ‘killing’ of Mohammed al Durah which the court had required France 2 to produce. For readers who are unfamiliar with this scandal, I wrote about it here, here and here.

What it actually produced was 18 minutes out of the 27 it was required to bring forward. From this footage, which according to France 2’s Palestinian cameraman was filmed during an implausible 45 minutes of continuous shooting by Israeli soldiers, there is no evidence that anyone at all was killed or injured -- including Mohammed al Durah who by the end of the frames in which he figured seemed to be still very much alive and unmarked by any wound whatsoever.

It is clear to anyone looking at this in detail that the whole thing was staged, not least from the devastating evidence which shows the boy raising his arm and peeping through his fingers seconds after France 2 correspondent Charles Enderlin said he had been shot dead. From this footage, there is no evidence that anyone at all was killed or injured - including Mohammed al-Durah, who by the end of the frames in which he figured seemed to be still very much alive and unmarked by any wound whatsoever.

After the hearing Professor Richard Landes, one of the people who had already seen the contested footage, said that two scenes had been cut out which clearly showed that the violence had been staged -- including one in which a Palestinian preparing to throw a missile is suddenly picked up and carried into an ambulance despite showing no signs of injury. This scene, said Landes, was filmed by Reuters, who actually filmed the France 2 cameraman filming it. Yet there was no sign of it today.

Although the footage shown was supposed to have been filmed during continuous firing by the Israelis for 45 minutes, one child was pictured riding a bicycle through the melee. When it came to the footage of the "killing" of Mohammed al-Durah, the sequence was not a continuous narrative but was repeatedly broken up and spliced onto footage of other scenes.

There were many very strange things about this footage which just didn’t add up. When it came to the footage of the ‘killing’ of Mohammed al Durah, the following stood out:

* This sequence was not a continuous narrative but was repeatedly broken up and spliced onto footage of other scenes from the demonstration

* Although the France 2 cameraman had told a German film-maker, Esther Shapira, that he had filmed six minutes of the al Durah father and son under continuous Israeli fire, the footage of them lasted for less than one minute

* There was a camera tripod next to them

* There was no evidence of the boy actually being hit

* At one point, people in the crowd cried out that the boy was dead, while he was sitting up large as life clinging onto his father with his mouth wide open

* After he was said to be dead, he moved his arm (the sequence I have already reported which has been available on the web for years).

The ‘killing’ of Mohammed al Durah was swallowed uncritically by the western media, despite the manifold unlikeliness and contradictions which were apparent from the start, because it accorded with the murderous prejudice against Israel which is the prism through which the Middle East conflict is habitually refracted. This scandal has the most profound implications not just for the media, not just for the Middle East conflict but for the western world’s relationship to reason, which seems to grow more tenuous by the day.

Israeli Government Officially Confirms Al-Dura Footage was Staged Blood Libel Against IDF

We all knew it. And the Jew-hating Muslim thugs knew it too. Now the mask is off. From Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center:

In response to a warning letter sent by Shurat HaDin to the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO) more than 9 months ago, GPO Director Danny Seaman has written a formal acknowledgment that FRANCE 2 Television staged the infamous news footage depicting a Palestinian child being shot to death by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in September 2000. This is the first time in the seven years since the footage broadcast that the Prime Minister's Office has confirmed that a journalistic fraud had been perpetrated against the IDF by government owned FRANCE 2 television.

Shurat HaDin had written Seaman contending that mounting evidence proved that cameramen and news editors from FRANCE 2 had deliberately staged and then misleadingly edited the footage aired by the French government television on in September 2000. The emotional footage, repeatedly broadcast around the world on CNN and other cable stations, ignited anti-Israeli violence in the Palestinian Authority and Israeli Arab communities and spurred international condemnation of the IDF. The Palestinian youth Muhammad al-Dura, allegedly seen being killed in the video footage, became the poster child in the Arab world for the current intifada violence and fueled hundreds of terror attacks against Israeli citizens and Jewish communities worldwide. Thousands of Jews and Arabs have been killed in the ensuing violence following the broadcast.

The Shurat HaDin letter demanded that, in light of the fraudulent broadcast and the grievous harm that it unleashed against Israel as well as the massive numbers of victims attributable to the fake footage, Seaman must strip FRANCE 2 of its press credentials.

Although Seaman stopped short of agreeing to remove FRANCE 2's accreditations his response letter to Shurat HaDin confirms that the Prime Minister's Office firmly believes that the footage was deliberately staged to misrepresent that the IDF killed al-Dura when in fact a forensic investigation has concluded that Israel could not possibly have been responsible. As Seaman writes:

"Without any deep and serious investigation, the global media convicted the State of Israel in the murder of a little boy, and his image remained tattooed and engraved in the collective Arab memory as a symbol for the cruelty of the Zionist nation. These allegations started a long road that leaded to exposing the truth and basing the fact that Talal Abu Rahma, the network’s Palestinian cameraman, engaged in the systematic staging of action scenes . . . This libel incited the Arab world and caused many victims in and outside of Israel."

Seaman's letter then states that despite this confirmed journalistic libel the GPO will not seek to have FRANCE 2's credentials revoked.

It is the intention now of Shurat HaDin to file a petition in the High Court of Justice against the GPO and FRANCE 2 compelling the government to remove FRANCE 2 credentials and prohibit them from manufacturing further anti-Israel propaganda pieces.

According to Shurat HaDin Director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner: "This modern-day blood libel directly resulted in hundreds of Jewish and Arab deaths and ignited a still-flaming torch of international hatred, only for the sake of raising FRANCE 2's ratings. This was perhaps the greatest journalistic hoax perpetrated in the last hundred years. We demand that those who are responsible for this crime will bare the consequences of their actions. The State of Israel cannot simply allow FRANCE 2 to remain in this country."

Moreover, activist Philippe Karsenty has led a long battle inside of Frcnce against FRANCE 2 seeking to determine whether the Al-Dura footage had been staged. Last week in an historic victory for Philippe Karsenty, a French Court hearing an appeal of his case centering on the Al-Dura allegations ordered that all of the raw video footage shot by the camera crew be released to determine if a deliberate news hoax had been perpetrated.

Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center is a long overdue Jewish legal rights institute based in Israel. Staffed by some of the country’s leading activist attorneys, we are dedicated to providing legal representation and resources for the numerous courtroom struggles, which are being waged in the Israeli, American and European courts on behalf of the Jewish State. We serve as a central clearinghouse and litigation base for the multifarious legal battles that have been thrust upon Israel’s citizens during these dark days.

Contact Us: info@israellawcenter.org

Watch the video below and see for yourself.

French Judge Orders Court Screening of Al-Dura Video Footage

From French Judge Orders Court Screening of Al-Dura Video Footage:

An appeals court judge in Paris ordered France 2 TV to show the court 25 minutes of raw video footage shot on Sept. 30, 2000, in Gaza in which the Palestinian boy Mohammed al-Dura apparently was shot and killed in an exchange of gunfire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants. Al-Dura's shooting death became an icon for Palestinian suffering, but the Israeli army concluded after an investigation that the boy could not possibly have been hit by Israeli bullets. When Philippe Karsenty, director of the media watchdog group Media-Ratings, called France 2's exclusive video of the incident "a hoax," he was found guilty of slander. He appealed the decision, and on Wednesday the appeals judge ordered that the video be released. Several French and U.S. journalists who have seen the raw footage have indicated the shooting might have been staged by Palestinians.

France2: Release the Secret Muhammad al Durah Tapes!

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has strongly commended, and supports the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) demand of the France-2 television network that it release the full 27 minutes of footage of the alleged killing of the Palestinian boy, Muhammad al-Durah, on September 30 2000. The deputy commander of the IDF's Spokesman's Office, Col. Shlomi Am-Shalom, has submitted a letter to France-2's Jerusalem Bureau chief in Israel, Charles Enderlin, regarding Enderlin's story from September 30, 2000, in which 55 seconds of edited footage from the Netzarim junction filmed by a local Palestinian cameraman working for France-2, Tala Abu Rahma, purporting to show IDF forces shooting and killing al-Dura, was aired by France-2. Enderlin's story, which France-2 provided free of charge to the rest of the international media, led to world-wide accusations against Israel that the boy had been deliberately killed by the IDF during a shoot out with Palestinian Authority (PA) forces.

A French journalist, Philippe Karsenty, the editor of Media-Ratings, www.m-r.fr, an internet service that monitors the French media, is going to court in Paris on Wednesday, September 19 to appeal a judgment for defamation brought against him by France-2 television for questioning Enderlin's veracity and challenging him to explain obvious defects and inconsistencies in the al-Durah story. Part of the reason for the original judgment going against Karsenty cited by the court was the absence of an official complaint from Israel or the IDF regarding the veracity of the France-2 story. However, as early as November 2000, investigations on behalf of the IDF's Southern Command proved mathematically and physically that the IDF forces on the ground could not see al-Durah from their position and that it was physically impossible for their bullets to have killed him.

Respected media organizations like the Wall Street Journal, CBS News, Atlantic Monthly and Commentary magazine have all published detailed investigations that all concluded that the France-2 footage was either staged or simply edited to show something that did not happen, while an October 2002 German television documentary film by Esther Schapira, Three Bullets and a Dead Child: Who Shot Muhammad al-Durah? also concluded that IDF bullets could not have killed al-Durah. The ZOA has released a full discussion of the issues and called upon France-2 to release the full, never before publicly broadcast, 27 minutes of footage surrounding the incident in order to clarify whether the boy's alleged killing was a staged Palestinian propaganda incident.

* * *

The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress about the dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver.

Nous accusons!

Excerpted from Melanie Phillips:

Tomorrow, [Update: legal argument took place on September 12 while the full hearing is now scheduled to start on September 19, 2007. ] an appeal starts in Paris in a case which encapsulates all that is most rotten and murderous about the media war against Israel and its truly monstrous consequences. At the beginning of the second intifada, an event occurred which more than any other was to incite mass hysteria against Israel, lead directly to the terrorist murder of Jews and whip up demonstrations and incitement against Israel and the west throughout the Arab and Muslim world. On September 30, 2000 viewers around the world watched a short news clip screened by the TV station France 2 which appeared to show the killing by the Israel Defence Force of a Palestinian boy, Muhammad al-Dura, at Netzarim junction in Gaza. The boy was shown crouching with his father behind a barrel next to a concrete wall in an apparently vain attempt to shelter from the gun-battle between Israel and the Palestinians that was raging around them. In his commentary on the incident France 2's Israel correspondent, Charles Enderlin, declared that the IDF had killed the boy.

This footage become the iconic image of the intifada and the Palestinian 'struggle' against Israel. It served to incite terrorist violence and atrocities as well as inflaming hatred of Israel around the world. It was used in Palestinian educational materials to incite other children to turn themselves into human bombs. It was used repeatedly in al Qaeda's videotape of the beheading of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. Itwas used to whip Iraqi Republican Guards into a frenzy before the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. And most stomach-churning of all, it was invoked by the Palestinian mob in Ramallah that lynched IDF reservists YosefAvrahami and Vadim Novesche, who had taken a wrong turning, two weeks after the alleged al Durah killing.

The consequences of their fatal error are well known: they were tortured and beaten to death in the Palestinian Authority police station, and their lifeless bodies thrown out of the station's second story window to a throngof men howling, Allahu Akbar -God is great! They commenced to dismember and disembowel the soldiers' corpses, and then passed the entrails on a platter to a hysterical mob numbering in the thousands who rejoiced as they literally chewed and swallowed the remains of their hated Jews. What is lesser known is that while eating the flesh and blood of their victims, in satisfaction and triumph, the good citizens of Ramallah chanted, not only, Allahu-Akbar- but the name of Mohamed al Durah!But it quickly became apparent that the IDF could not have killed al Durah. Initially, the Israeli government had taken responsibility for his death, but it later concluded that the whole thing was a fraud because it wasphysically impossible for the IDF to have shot at the al Duras from their position that day at the Netzarim junction. Several other independent commentators came to the same conclusion, including extensive investigations by the French-language Israeli news agency MENA, a German television documentary film by Esther Schapira called Three Bullets and a Dead Child: Who Shot Muhammad al-Dura? and the Atlantic Monthly; while Richard Landes, a Boston University historian, who has claimed on his blog, Augean Stables, his website, The Second Draft, and in three films-Pallywood, The Birth of an Icon, and Icon of Hatred-that the al Dura 'killing' was staged.

On November 24, 2004, Philippe Karsenty, founder of the French online media watchdog, Media Ratings, sent out an email to his subscribers in which he accused the France 2 television network of staging the al Durah 'killing'. He called for the resignation of both Charles Enderlin and France 2's News Director, Arlette Chabot, for their role in promulgating the alleged hoax. France 2 and Enderlin sued Karsenty for defamation, and won. Tomorrow sees the opening of Karsenty's appeal. The behaviour to date of both the French judges and France 2 has been simply outrageous.

The footage in question was filmed by a Palestinian cameraman, Talal abu Rahma. France 2 is holding 27 minutes of raw footage of his film which it refuses to release. Independent investigators have repeatedly asked it to do so. It refuses point blank. Why? Since transmitted parts of this footage, why does it refuse to release the rest of it? The most likely reason is that the unscreened footage proves that the 'killing' was indeed nothing of the kind.

Click here to read the full article.

Revising history is the second thing that palestinians do best after slaughtering others

The leading palestinian newspaper Al Quds republished a political cartoon depicting a palestinian Christ figure being crucified with an Iraqi 'brother' on the same cross. The image expresses a common palestinian motif, found both in text and cartoons, that depicts palestinians as Jesus and Jesus as a palestinian, commented Itamar Marcus of Israel-based Palestinian Media Watch. The caption on the cartoon, published Thursday, says, 'Brother from Iraq, Relative from Palestine.

Looky here:









"Historical revision is a backbone of palestinian political and academic behavior, as the leaders attempt to create a separate 'Palestinian Arab' history and identity for themselves, distinct from the general Arab and Islamic history," Marcus said.

Here are more examples identifying Jesus as a palestinian:

"We must not forget that (Jesus) Messiah, may peace be upon him, is palestinian, the son the Mary the palestinian, who is sanctified by hundreds of millions of believers in this world." – Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 18, 2005.

"It was quite natural that the palestinians rose to save their sanctuaries (in Nazareth) without anyone thinking there is a difference between a Christian and a Muslim … since in the palestinian situation, the lord Messiah (Jesus) and his mother (Mary) are both Galileans and palestinians … ." – Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 9.

"The palestinian Galilee village of Kfar Kana takes pride in the fact that in [the village] the palestinian Messiah succeeded to turn water into wine." – Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 14, 2004.

Jesus also is defined as a "martyr for Allah" in this example:

"And a child from the De'haisha refugee camp will shout: 'Yes, we have won, just as the prophets and (Jesus') Apostles won,' and the shahids will cry, 'We shook the palm trees alongside Lady Earth and the lady of the people, the Virgin Mary, and with her son the first palestinian Shahid.'" – Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 17, 2005]

Palestinian media also has transformed palestinians into Jesus, as in these examples:

"Muhammad (Al Dura, child killed by undetermined gunfire) ... a tiny sleeping Jesus." – Al Quds, May 25, 2001:

"Our struggle today against the other side is an eternal one. It can be said that it started 2,000 years ago and continues until today. I demonstrate this through the figure of Jesus… The Israeli soldiers are wearing army uniforms while Jesus has nothing except for the truth. When they searched him at the entrance of Jerusalem, they found a stone, a piece of bread and fish and he was cuffed. This is the palestinian from the beginning of the struggle until the end." – Palestinian Authority TV, July 21, 2000.

Keyword(s): Rewriting history in palestinian culture

PA TV resumes encouraging children to become martyrs

Yes, folks. Islam practices infanticide. From PA TV Resumes Encouraging Children to Become Martyrs:

After a three-year hiatus, official Palestinian Authority (PA) television - which is under the authority of Mahmoud Abbas - has begun rebroadcasting a video shown hundreds of times between 2000 and 2004 depicting the child Muhammad al-Dura, who was killed in a crossfire, beckoning child viewers to "follow me" to heaven. This is disappointing, given that Abbas told author Elie Wiesel just two weeks ago in Petra that he would work to stamp out "instigation" in school curricula as well as in the media and literature. Yet through PA TV the Palestinian cult of martyrdom is being perpetuated rather than dismantled.

Here are some more quotes from PA TV to commit genocide against Jews, from PA TV:

"The Prophet said: The Resurrection will not take place until the Muslims fight the Jews, and the Muslims kill them. [R]ejoice in Allah's Victory... Everything wants vengeance on the Jews... these pigs on the face of the earth. And the day of our victory, Allah willing, will come." (PA TV, Sept 10, 2004)

Another senior Islamic scholar spoke of Jews as "the brothers of the monkeys and pigs." (PA TV, Sept. 12, 2004).

As Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook state, "media incitement per se is not the problem. The problem is Palestinian aspirations for Israel's destruction."

Stop the ethnic cleansing of indigenous Jews from their ancient homeland of Israel now!

TV Report that Helped Fuel Deadly palestinian Intifada Appears to be False

From TV Report that Helped Fuel Deadly Palestinian Intifada Appears to be False:

A 55-second video report, produced in 2000 by a French TV station and distributed free of charge around the world, has caused untold injury and grief to Israeli civilians. This month, the French author Nidra Poller analyzes the evidence in Commentary magazine and shows that the video is a fraud - "an almost perfect media crime," the retired French journalist Luc Rosenzweig calls it. There is a wider story here; we are vulnerable to video lies.

The reported death of a Palestinian child, Mohammed Dura, in Gaza did as much as anything else to ignite the current uprising. In the video segment produced on Sept. 30, 2000, and distributed immediately, state-owned France 2 television accused the Israeli army of deliberately shooting and killing the 12-year-old. This version of the story was retold around the world - and it has figured in countless wall posters, an al-Qaeda recruiting video, an epic poem. But, according to Poller, the video is a fraud. The rest of the segment - which wasn't aired but which Poller saw - shows the child propping himself on an elbow, shading his eyes with his hands. A boy named Mohammed Dura did die in a Gaza hospital that day. His face doesn't match the face in the video.

See also Myth, Fact, and the al-Dura Affair - Nidra Poller (Commentary)

See also Who Killed Muhammad Al-Dura? Blood Libel - Model 2000 - Amnon Lord (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, 15 July 02)

Unedited French Video Shows al-Dura Not Hit by Israeli Fire

French TV in 2000 broadcast news reports purportedly showing 12-year-old Mohammed al-Dura being shot by Israeli soldiers.

But Denis Jeambar, editor-in-chief of the French news weekly l'Express, and filmmaker Daniel Leconte, who saw raw, unedited video of the shooting taken by the France 2 network, said it's not possible for the boy to have been shot by Israeli soldiers, as claimed, and that the videocassette is full of staged scenes of faked injuries.

"The only ones who could hit the child were the Palestinians from their position," Leconte said. "If they had been Israeli bullets, they would be very strange bullets because they would have needed to go around the corner."

Unedited French Video Shows al-Dura Not Hit by Israeli Fire

The Mythical Martyr Mohammed al-Durra

The images of Mohammed al-Durra hiding from Israeli fire behind his father's back in the early days of the second intifada shocked the whole world. For many Arabs and Muslims, the boy became the symbol of Palestinian suffering. Yet it was nothing but a hoax; it has been proven that Israeli soldiers could not have killed the boy. France 2 distributed the dramatic coverage free of charge to the global media. What turned these images into a modern blood-libel against Israel was the voice-over of Charles Enderlin, the France 2 correspondent in Jerusalem. Even though Enderlin was not in Gaza when the alleged killing happened, he told viewers with great confidence that the "shooting comes from the Israeli position."

Wall Street Journal Europe, 26Nov04

[Film Review] Three Bullets and a Dead Child

Esther Schapira is a documentary filmmaker in Germany who has produced a remarkable film that reveals more than ever how the Palestinian Authority has used children to advance its goal of attacking Israel in the world media.

Schapira's film, "Three Bullets and a Dead Child," in German with English subtitles, shows viewers what actually happened that fateful day in Gaza when 12 year-old Mohammed al Dura was reported to have been deliberately shot by Israeli soldiers. Schapira's documentary shows terrorists attacking an Israeli army base, along with how a Palestinian cameraman engaged in film manipulations as well as how a French television station created a propaganda moment for Arafat's Palestinian Authority. Even today, the al Dura event is extensively used to keep the Middle East conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis roiling, costing thousands of lives on both sides.

The films takes viewers on an exhaustive cinematic tour of that morning when Israeli soldiers stationed at the Netzarim outpost were attacked by Palestinians armed with Kalashnikov guns and firebombs, as well as by stone-throwing youths. Some film outtakes even show shots of the boy and his father positioning themselves as if for a visual bite when they easily could have exited the scene with the other Palestinians present. Through exhaustive interviews with the Israel Defense Forces and through forensic studies, the film reveals how it was impossible for Israeli soldiers to have shot Mohammed al-Dura and how the Palestinian Police purposely manipulated the event to Arafat's advantage.

Shocking footage of the ferocity of the attack on the Israeli outpost minutes before the boy's death gives the viewer a vicarious ride of what the Israeli soldiers were going through that morning. But make no mistake: this is an objective film. It shows how the Israelis could not have killed the boy and does so without being preachy or taking sides.

Of special interest in the film is the question of why al Duras and his father decided to walk intentionally through the middle of a riot and an attack on an Israeli army outpost when they easily could have walked around the trouble spot. Subsequent footage also begs the question of why the pair didn't flee with everyone else but chose rather to stay in front of the Palestinian cameraman when the Israelis were finally defending themselves.

The Israeli army's rush to apologize for the incident without investigating it first is outlined in the documentary as well as how the Palestinian police intentionally prevented later investigative attempts. Forensic reports made by the Palestinians further show that whoever shot the boy would have to have been in the Palestinian camp-that is if the boy and his father were ever really shot at all.

Of special interest is that French television station France 2's Palestinian cameraman, Talal Abu Rahme, who shot the actual event, can't seem to keep his story straight. Only six minutes of a 45-minute report of the attack on the Israeli base that morning was turned in, of which France 2 only aired 20 seconds-20 seconds that inflamed the world unjustifiably against Israel. France 2 has consistently refused to release the outtakes of the filming from before and after the incident.

The Palestine Solidarity Movement in the United States and Canada has been screening on college campuses propaganda films such as "Jenin, Jenin" and "Death In Gaza," a film recently aired on HBO, which depict massacres and atrocities that never occurred. But "Three Bullets and a Dead Child" can show the American public and the world how the Palestinian Authority engages in media manipulations that form the staples of such films. So be prepared for a shock. Due to be released shortly, Schapira's documentary should take America by storm.

Three Bullets and a Dead Child

Filmmaker Pierre Rehov uncovers shocking Palestinian 'myths'

Pierre Rehov's revelations as a producer, that there was something very fishy about the images of Mohammed al-Dura being shot, has immersed himself in documenting, up-close and personal, the true nature of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

To date he has produced six documentaries, highlighted on a new website that communicates his conviction that Palestinian leaders have created a mythology every reporter working in the disputed territories is compelled to buy if he wants to work safely.

Moreover, there is compelling evidence that the "shooting death" of little Mohammed al-Dura was a piece of intentional Arab "street theatre" staged by Palestinians to portray Israelis as child murderers.

Through exclusive video and film footage of Palestinian leaders including Yasser Arafat, Rehov demonstrates that their goal remains the eradication of the Jewish state. In it, the viewer can:

- watch Arafat call for jihad (in Arabic).

- watch his reaction when a daring reporter questions his training of young children in the art of war against Israel.

- watch the indoctrination of young children and girls into martyrdom for his cause.

- watch victims of Arafat's terrorism deal with their pain and suffering.

Ckeck out his website here.

Filmmaker Pierre Rehov uncovers shocking Palestinian 'myths'