Eight Years Later, The News Coverage of Al-Durah Hoax Still Stings

Eight years ago when France 2 and Charles Enderlin sent around the world their fake story about Muhammad al Dura, it was the Hoax that launched a thousand bombs. The staged death of that little boy became the rallying cry of Islamofacist terrorist all around the world. Instead of investigating the story, the Mainstream media became the biggest supporters of the hoax (the examples below are from Brad Wilmouth via Newsbusters):

On the November 12, 2000, 60 Minutes, CBS correspondent Bob Simon mentioned that the Israeli military was planning to investigate the shooting but dismissed the belief of Israeli General Yom-Tov Samia that Israeli troops were not responsible as "predictable." Simon: "But before the soldiers even opened fire [in the simulation], the general and his scientists had reached their conclusions, predictable conclusions: Mohammed al-Dura and his father had not been shot by Israelis." General Samia: "I am very sure that they were shot from the Palestinian side." Simon: "The general may believe that, but it will be a hard sell even to Israelis."

Remember what happend during the Lebanon War, when Charles Johnson exposed the fake pictures from Reuters. That was nothing new, the Palestinians have been manipulating the news for sixty years---But the stories coming from the press, all told the story of that "tragic boy:"

On the September 30, 2000, CBS Evening News, David Hawkins reported al-Dura as being caught in a crossfire between Israeli troops and Palestinians: "Thousands of stone throwers clashed with Israeli troops all across the West Bank. And there were firefights between soldiers and Palestinian gunmen in Nablus and in Gaza. In Gaza, a father and son caught in the cross fire. -- this 12-year-old boy, one of at least a dozen Palestinians killed in today's fighting.

NBC Nightly News, anchor John Seigenthaler hinted that al-Dura was killed by Israeli troops when they "opened fire": "On Rosh Hashanah, a religious holy day marking the Jewish new year, a bloody confrontation erupted in the West Bank and Gaza strip. Israeli troops opened fire today on Palestinian rioters, killing 12 people, including a 12-year-old boy caught in the crossfire, 500 others wounded. New violence which threatens to derail the peace process."

On the October 1, 2000, World News Tonight Sunday, ABC correspondent Gillian Findlay blamed the al-Dura shooting on Israeli gunfire: "Four days of fighting, dozens of new martyred and an image that will haunt everyone in this conflict for years to come. It happened yesterday in Gaza, a man and his injured son trapped under Israeli fire. The boy is terrified. 'My son is dying,' the man yells. And then the shots come in lower. Twelve-year-old Mohammed Jamal al-Dura was buried at Palestinian hill last night, his father remains in hospital in serious condition."

At the end of the same October 1 show, ABC anchor Carole Simpson aired comments from the Palestinian cameraman, Talal Abu Rahmeh, who described his version of events.

Abu Rameh is the cameraman who participated in staging the Hoax.

On the October 1, 2000, CBS Sunday Morning, David Hawkins slanted the story in favor of criticisms by Palestinians of "excessive force" by Israelis: "But 18 Palestinians have been killed, including a young boy caught in the crossfire during a firefight in Gaza. Mohammed al-Dura was laid to rest yesterday amidst an outpouring of grief. He was 12 years old. In four days of fighting, more than 700 Palestinians and about a dozen Israelis have been wounded."

n the October 1, 2000, Sunday Today, Tom Aspell reported: "Among the dead after three days of rioting, 12-year-old Mohammed al-Dura. Thousands of Palestinians marched at his funeral in Gaza last night. The boy's death in the arms of his father caught in a crossfire. His father trying to protect his son, who in the chaos is hit by a bullet in the stomach. It has galvanized Palestinians, who have been battling Israeli soldiers for three days in Gaza, in Jerusalem, and all over the West Bank. Palestinian officials blame Israel for using excessive force."

On the October 2, 2000, World News Tonight, ABC's Peter Jennings reported that the al-Dura shooting "exacerbated" the violence which started "when the leader of the Israeli opposition made a provocative visit to the holiest site in Jerusalem." Jennings: "We begin however with the vicious politics of the Middle East. More than a dozen people were killed by the Israeli army or the police today, some of them Palestinians and many Israeli Arabs who've lived within Israel for at least 30 years. This violence got started on Thursday when the leader of the Israeli opposition made a provocative visit to the holiest site in Jerusalem, coveted by Jews and Muslims. Exacerbated yesterday by this. A Palestinian father and his son shot as they cringed in fear with the fighting all around them. The boy is dead. It's been seen on television by everyone there. Today an Israeli settler and a policeman were killed. President Clinton said it had to stop."

I don't blame Peter Jennings for slanting the story after all, when he was based in the Middle East he was "doing the nasty" with one of the PLO propagandists. Of course in the interests of full disclosure--He never disclosed it.

Don't think it was just the News Media, President Clinton weighed in on it also:

I mean, I was watching it as if it were someone I knew, you know? And it was a heartbreaking thing to see a child like that caught in a crossfire.

On the October 2, 2000, Today, NBC's Ann Curry reported blamed it all on the Jooze, implying that we have no right to visit our sacred sites: "

The fighting was ignited Thursday when Israeli hard-liner Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, a contested area that is sacred to both Jews and Muslims. Clashes then spread throughout the West Bank and then to the Gaza Strip, where a 12-year-old boy caught in the crossfire was killed, as his father tried to shield him."

Andrea Mitchell presided over this exchange

ANDREA MITCHELL: A powerful image broadcast on Palestinian television, Israeli television and around the world. The face of a child in terror, a father helpless to protect him. A mother now in mourning points to the picture of her son's death. She says, "What a tragedy for us. Look for yourself." And the world is looking.

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: I kept wondering if there was something else that the father could do to shield the child.

MITCHELL: The 12-year-old boy, Mohammed al-Dura, and his father trapped in a storm of gunfire. A television cameraman, 15 yards away, unable to save them.

TALAL ABU RAHMEH, PALESTINIAN CAMERAMAN FOR FRANCE 2 TV: It was raining from the bullets, just bullets all over.

MITCHELL: The child is hit in the leg. The father calls for help. For almost an hour the child bleeds. The father screams. Then the fifth hail of bullets.

REHMEH: I scream in the tape, as you hear me, "The boy is dead. The boy is dead."

MITCHELL: But experts see little chance that the smoke will clear any time soon, leaving only the senseless death of a 12-year-old child. Andrea Mitchell, NBC News, Washington.

For those who saw the tape in the French Courtroom last month, after Rehmeh blew his line because after he screamed the boy is dead--the boy MOVED.

At the end of November 2000, Israel announced that their investigation of the incident proved that al Dura could not have been killed by Israeli weapons, The media used it as an opportunity to sell the Palestinian hoax some more:

On November 28, 2000, a number of major newspapers reported that, after the investigation, the Israeli army was backing off its initial acceptance of responsibility. William Orme of the New York Times reported: "Today the army did not rule out the possibility that one of its soldiers had killed the boy. But General Samia said the army had ‘great doubt' that it was responsible and believed that the evidence indicated ‘a very reasonable possibility' that the boy ‘was hit by Palestinian gunfire.'"

The Times article also reported: "Local and regional television networks have broadcast the scene hundreds of times. Arab poets and songwriters have composed dozens of tributes to the boy's memory. The boy's wounded father, giving interviews from his hospital bed in Amman, Jordan, became a regional celebrity. In one pointed gesture, the avenue in Cairo where the Israeli Embassy is situated was renamed Muhammad al-Durrah Street."

On the November 28, 2000, The Early Show, a full report ran:

JULIE CHEN: You may remember the pictures of a Palestinian boy shot to death while crouching beside his father. The Israelis now say they may not be to blame. David Hawkins reports.

DAVID HAWKINS: The 12-year-old boy whose televised death has come to symbolize Israel's severe reaction to Palestinian violence may not have been killed by an Israeli soldier, the Israeli army now says. The general in command of Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip where the shooting took place nearly two months ago says an army investigation into the incident cast serious doubt that Mohammed al-Dura and his father, Jamal, were hit by Israeli fire.

MAJOR GENERAL YOM-TOV SAMIA, ISRAELI ARMY: That there is quite possibility that the boy was hit by a Palestinian bullet in the course of the exchange of fire that took place in the area.

HAWKINS: But the cameraman who took the now famous picture says Palestinian gunmen had stopped shooting and run away at least 10 minutes before Mohammed al-Dura was killed.

TALAL ABU RAHMEH, PALESTINIAN CAMERMAN FOR FRANCE 2 TV: Look, the fire, it was from both sides maybe the first three minutes. Then, after that, all of the shooting was coming from behind.

HAWKINS: Investigators working for the army based their conclusions on tests performed at a reconstruction of the scene because Israeli forces destroyed most of the evidence shortly after the shooting. Dozens of Palestinian youths have been shot and killed by Israeli soldiers during the conflict, but the general said only the death of Mohammed al-Dura has been investigated. David Hawkins, CBS News, Tel Aviv.

On the November 28, 2000, CNBC Early Today, Jennifer Lewis-Hall reported: "Israelis and Palestinians exchanged gunfire today, even as Muslims marked the start of the holy month of Ramadan. Meantime, the Israeli army now says a 12-year-old boy killed in the crossfire last month was shot by Palestinian, not Israeli gunfire. The image of the frightened boy and his father caught in a firefight galvanized world attention on the Israeli response to Palestinian protests."

On the May 8, 2001, NBC Nightly News, Tom Brokaw relayed that Ariel Sharon "accused Palestinians of deliberately putting their children in the line of fire."And in his reported Martin Fletcher informed viewers that actors on Palestinian television were portraying al-Dura's death "in a hail of Israeli bullets," without pointing out that the bullets may have been Palestinian.

MARTIN FLETCHER: But now the Palestinians are calling on the youngest to join the battle, and using a stunning tactic, commercials on Palestinian TV asking children, "Drop your toys. Pick up rocks." Even using actors to recreate the most famous image of the uprising, one that shocked the world: 12-year-old Mohammed al-Dura dying in his father's arms, caught in a hail of Israeli bullets. The commercial shows Mohammed in paradise, urging other children to, quote, "Follow him."

JAMAL AL-DURA, THROUGH TRANSLATOR: I was trying to protect my son.

FLETCHER: His father, Jamal, was shot eight times, barely survived. Now undergoing surgery in Jordan, NBC News showed him the commercial which he saw for the very first time. 'It breaks my heart,' he said. He believes in peace, but does not believe it's possible now with this Israeli government. There's no escape from the war for children here. At his son Mohammed's school in Gaza today, the daily prayer and a call to arms. "Are you afraid?" he shouts. "No," they answer. And then, "We ask Allah to destroy the Jews." More than half the population of Gaza are children under the age of 15. And if you ask any of the boys here what they want to do, they'll answer the same thing: "Fight the Israelis." Mohammed's desk is now a shrine. The teacher asks, "Where is Mohammed?" "Paradise." And in English class, they learned a new phrase today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE TEACHER: The Israeli army killed our friend. Shame on them!

CHILDREN: Shame on them!

FLETCHER: Already, young boys are learning how to fight. Summer camp teaches how to resist the Israelis. But now they are being taught not to fear death. The greatest glory, they are told, is to be a martyr. Martin Fletcher, NBC News, Gaza.

Why is any of this important now? Because in the week since the French Court ruled that France 2 may have perpetuated a hoax on the entire world, causing hundreds of deaths and injuries, NONE--NOT ONE of these same networks took the same time to declare the al Dura story a Hoax as they took to perpetuate the hoax. And that my friends, is VERY disgusting..