German Film Implies That Arabs Shot 12-Year-Old Muhammad
German Film Implies That Arabs Shot 12-Year-Old Muhammad
A film aired last night on German ARD television showed
evidence that 12-year-old Mohammed A-Dura - who became a
hero for Palestinian Authority Arabs when his death by gunfire
was broadcast worldwide - was not killed by Israelis, as the
Palestinians have long accused. The boy found his death when
he chanced upon a battle-site between Arab gunmen and Israeli
forces near Kfar Darom, Gaza, shortly after the current violence
began almost 18 months ago. The movie, produced by Esther
Shapira, is based on photographs and documents proving that
contrary to the PA's propaganda campaign, the boy was actually
killed by Palestinian gunfire.
Some of the points raised by Shapira to support
this hypothesis
include the following:
* The fatal bullets were shot from the front, when the only forces
firing from that angle were Palestinian.
* A big rock had obstructed the view of the boy and his father
from the view of the IDF forces, thus that the latter could not see
them. The day after the incident, however, an unknown hand
removed the rock and replaced it with a smaller one, as if to hide
the fact that the IDF did not have a view of the site.
* The Palestinians refused to release the many minutes of
footage that cameraman Talal Abu Rachman actually filmed, and
the world saw separate, disjointed scenes amounting to only
about 45 seconds' worth.
* The Palestinian doctor did not allow an autopsy of the body.
* The Palestinian camera team arrived about an hour beforehand,
as if to prepare for a significant event.
Arutz-7 similarly reported shortly after the incident that a study
by a former IDF sniper strongly indicated that the boy was the
victim of a cruel plot staged by Palestinian sharpshooters and a
television cameraman. Former IDF sniper Yosef Doriel, who
initiated a re-enactment, said at the time that he had several
reasons to suspect that it was not the Israelis who shot the boy:
³For one thing, the boy and his father were hiding behind and to
the left of a barrel that was between them and the Israeli forces,²
he told Arutz-7. ³In the video clip, you see four clean bullet
holes to the side of them. These were not shot by the Israelis, as
they are 'clean' and full holes - not mere grazes that would have
been formed by the 30-degree angle of the Israelis, but rather by
Palestinians (stationed more directly in front of the father and
son) to make sure that the two would stay put. Suddenly, you see
the boy lying down in his fatherıs lap, with another bullet hole in
the wall directly behind him - again, it could not have come from
the IDF position, which was behind the barrel and to the side, but
only from the Palestinian position, which was more directly in
front of the father and son. This is the bullet that went through
his stomach and out of his back. At that point in the video, you
can hear the firing - but the Israeli position was far away! Rather,
what happened was that a Palestinian advanced to a spot very
close to the photographer, and shot the fatal shot. You can also
notice that at that moment of the fatal shots, the photographer
suddenly shookı and the picture was blurred - a signal that the
shots came from close to him.²
Cameraman Talal Abu Rachman refused to comment on the
German film, saying he had to watch it first. His original
testimony was that no Arabs had fired shots at the time the boy
was killed. Gen. (res.) Yom-Tov Samiyeh, who headed the IDF
Southern Command at the time, said today, "One day, it will be
proven that the whole story... was one big Palestinian
production. And Palestinian propaganda has been riding on this
for a long time now."
ARUTZ SHEVA, website, 18 March 2002
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