Nidra Poller: "Myth, Fact, and the al-Dura Affair"

Most people who follow events in the Middle East have heard of Mohammed Al-Dura. They know that a filmed sequence was presented in the European media as if it showed the death of al-Dura, a young Palestinian boy, at the hands of the IDF. They also know that the footage, which ostensibly shows al-Dura cowering with his father and then dying, inflamed European anti-Israel sentiment, provoked rage among Arabs, and inspired terrorist attacks. Most poeple also know by this time that the film does not support the narrative originally presented with it and that it is unlikely that the film shows the results of Israeli fire. Did you know, however, that the sequence is an excerpt of a larger collection of footage that contains many examples of actors staging fake incidents? I didn't.

The Reuters, AP, and France-2 outtakes that I viewed show two totally different and easily identifiable types of activity at Netzarim junction: real, intifada-style attacks, and crudely falsified battle scenes. Both the real and the fake scenes are played out against a background of normal civilian activity at a busy crossroads. In the “reality” zone, excited children and angry young men hurl rocks and Molotov cocktails at the Israeli outpost while shababs (“youths”) standing on the roof of the Twins throw burning tires down onto the caged lookout; this goes on seemingly for hours, without provoking the slightest military reaction from Israeli soldiers.

At the same time, in the “theatrical” zone, Palestinian stringers sporting prestigious logos on their vests and cameras are seen filming battle scenes staged behind the abandoned factory, well out of range of Israeli gunfire. The “wounded” sail through the air like modern dancers and then suddenly collapse. Cameramen jockey with hysterical youths who pounce on the “casualties,” pushing and shoving, howling Allahu akhbar!, clumsily grabbing the “injured,” pushing away the rare ambulance attendant in a pale green polyester jacket in order to shove, twist, haul, and dump the “victims” into UN and Red Crescent ambulances that pull up on a second’s notice and career back down the road again, sirens screaming. In one shot we recognize Talal Abu Rahmeh [the cameraman of the al-Dura sequence]in his France-2 vest, filming a staged casualty scene.*

Split seconds of these ludicrous vignettes would later appear in newscasts and special reports; the husk, the raw footage that would reveal the fakery, had been removed, leaving the kernel rich in anti-Israel nutrients. Such staged scenes showed up, for example, in a dramatic CBS 60 Minutes special report on Netzarim crossing—a place “now known,” intoned Bob Simon, echoing Palestinian sources, “as Martyr’s Junction.”