Debriefing.org
A-Dura / France2 ; des origines (2001) jusqu'au 15 novembre 2007

25/09/2002
www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/2120/netzarim.html




58. By letter dated 22 June 1994, the Special Rapporteur transmitted information to the Government on the fate of the press professionals working in the Gaza area.
Allegedly, on 21 June 1993, Mr. Majdi al-Arabid, a cameraman for Worldwide Television News was shot in the leg by an army officer who threatened to shoot Mr. Al-Arabid in the head if he were to continue filming a clash between 'demonstrators' and soldiers in a refugee camp. Allegedly, Mr. Talal Abu Rahma, a Palestinian reporter with Cable News Network (CNN) was arrested and detained by military personnel during a raid on his apartment and was forced, during his detention, to stand barefoot on a burning hot floor.
Talal Abu Rahma was interviewed on 60 Minutes, Australia, about his role in filming the shooting of the Palestinian boy.







Above is an aerial photo showing the relative locations of the boy caught between two PLO sniper groups, and he was to the front and slightly to the right of the cameraman's position, according to one report the cameraman, and his 'sound man', were in a car on the opposite side of the road, while the IDF position was to the extreme right, across a four lane highway junction. It is my firm belief that the death of the boy, was nothing more than a PLO publicity stunt. Why else would the cameraman be sitting in that street, while a gunfight was being waged? Also according to the news reports, the boy and his father had caught a taxi, the driver refused to cross the junction, when he saw the gunfighting in front of him, to the left there are trees, which can be seen in the aerial picture. This would have been the logical place for the boy and his father to take cover. Yet they crossed the road in the line of fire, of the IDF and also from the Palestinian gunmen to their left, and to their right.



Look at the bullet holes, they seem to have been fired almost directly from the location of the camera. The Bullets right next to the father's arm, and just above the boy's leg seen in the photo of the boy lying down, were not in the previous frames, presumably one of these bullets went through the boy. The angle of the shots proves that they could not have been fired from the direction of the IDF Stronghold, because the cement block was in the way. The angle of the shot is from in front, not from the side, because a sideways shot would have a sideways angled bullet hole.
During the Australian 60 Minutes Interview with Talal Abu Rahma, Richard Carleton suddenly said to Rahma, regarding what happened at Netzarim, and the shooting, "It was Murder, wasn't it" Rahma was visibly startled, and stammered a non committal response.
The only scenario which makes any sense at all is that this was a pre arranged 'photo op.' With the boy, and his father, to be presented as 'victims' of Israeli violence. After all they count the lives of their children as nothing. Also the father was not shielding his son, if he had intended to shield him, the logical place for the boy, would have been right up against the cement water pipe, not exposed as he was. Take note of the brick on top of the cement block, strategically placed, to shield the father's head. This block is just visible in the other photos if you look carefully. When was it put in place? Presumably before the father took shelter there. Any normal loving parent would shield their child with their own body. But consider this, the whole 'event' was being stage managed by the PLO, the father believed that he and his son were in no danger, but were involved in a propaganda film. Then the shots were being fired at them from the Palestinians, so the father frantically tries to signal that he and his son are there, then he looked directly at the camera when bullets came from across the road, from the 'Journalists', and real fear is seen on his face and on that of his son. Then both were shot, the son fatally, who can he complain to? The Palestinian Authority? No because they did it. Besides he would receive, so he believed, several thousand dollars for his son being a martyr, except of course that the PA wrote him, and numerous other Palestinian martyr's families, rubber cheques. To whom could he complain? What happens when someone complains too much against the PA? They disappear! get shot.



The Palestinians examining the place where the boy, Mohammed,tragically and unnecessarily died, in Arafat's propaganda war on Israel.



This map shows the angle of the bullets. For more information see Who killed Mohammed al-Dura?
Yoseff Doriel's original report, on the killing of Mohammed al-Dura at Netzarim Junction.

Israeli Radio: Palestinian Ambulances evacuate fake wounded
(IsraelWire-10/30)
Israel Radio correspondent
Nissim Keinan reported on Sunday evening that he observed the situation at the Karnei checkpoint. "At one point Israeli forces shot straight up into the air to scare away the mob. Now even though the soldiers shot straight up in the air, hitting no one, four Palestinian ambulances came up to the crowd with sirens wailing for the benefit of the cameras and proceeded to evacuate a few fake wounded.
The only people who were actually wounded while I was there were shot later as they were throwing firebombs. And they were hit by sharp shooters."

Comments from a reader:
Regarding the photos of boy caught between two PLO sniper groups. In particular the photo showing the bullet holes in the wall just after the boy was shot.
As a retired military man who's specialty was weapons and munitions, I'd venture to say that the bullet holes were fired from an automatic weapon, (note how the holes climb the wall and vir to the right -- the gunman was left handed). The weapon was also fired from across the street, probably very near the cameraman's location. Had the bullets been fired from either the left or right of the boy the holes in the concrete would have an elliptical shape that fans out in the opposite direction from where the shot was fired. The single hole behind the father's arm may or may not have been from the same weapon. I'd rather doubt that the hole was made after it past through the boy. As a bullet exits a body it carries a rather large amount of flesh and blood with it. There is no evidence of this in the photo.
However, when a bullet hits a wall like this one you can expect it to expel a quantity of cement rubble. (Ever see a science film where they show a meteorite hitting the moon, how it ejects material behind it) I'd suspect this ricochet material is what killed the boy.
In closing I'd like to say "Congratulations." Your the first person to note what I'd wondered about when I saw the news photo ... and that is, why is the father leaving his son in such a dangerous position? Most fathers would have put the boy between them and the concrete.

sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/01_stories/2000_10_15/story_248.asp
Crisis in the Middle East
October 15, 2000
Reporter - Richard Carleton. Producers: Howard Sacre, Gareth Harvey.
War looms in the Middle East.
"The television images were almost too horrible to watch. A young Palestinian boy, cowering in fear, cut down in a hail of bullets fired by Israeli troops. Then later, a lynch mob storms a police station and brutally murders two Israeli soldiers.
After half a century we've almost become accustomed to the endless violence between Arabs and Jews in Israel. Each new outbreak of fighting leads to another round of peace talks, only to fall apart with hateful recriminations on both sides.
In Jerusalem, Richard Carleton has been seeing first hand just how impossibly far apart the warring parties remain."
Unfortunately the transcript for the Sixty Minutes interview with Talal Abu Rahma by Richard Carleton is not available.