The second draft of history
We all know that the media lens can distort as much as amplify, but the website Second Draft demonstrates the issue very graphically. It contains video footage, maps and other details behind some of the dramatic pictures about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that have been shown on the world’s media. The phenomenon known as ‘Pallywood’ has been investigated by Second Draft, and recently they have turned their attention to a specific incident: the apparent killing of the young boy, Muhamed al Durah, in 2000. We have made reference to this story before and noted the doubts about the version given to the world - that the young boy and his father were targeted by the Israelis, resulting in the boy being shot and killed. Here is what Second Draft says about the incident:
People who followed Middle East news in 2000 cannot forget the image of Muhamed al Durah, gunned down in a hail of Israeli bullets at the very beginning of the Al Aqsa Intifada. The impact of this dramatic footage on global culture is close to incalculable. Its prominence goes far beyond any other image from this terrible conflict and its impact goes far beyond any of its other images, one of “the most powerful images of the past 50 years,” one of the shaping images of this young 21st century. One extreme claims that it reveals Israeli malevolence and wanton violence, deliberately targeting a defenseless child and killing him in cold blood. “In killing this boy the Israelis killed every child in the world” (Osama bin Laden). The other side claims that it was either staged or a snuff film that reveals the ruthless and paranoid nature of PA media culture… the first blood libel of the 21st century. Even-handedness – Who knows who did it? It’s a tragedy – doesn’t work here. If we hope to learn anything from this terrible event, it will come from examination. We put the evidence before you and the five possible scenarios with arguments for and against. Judge for yourself.
Look at the evidence and download the video. (It is worth installing the DivX tool to watch the video in a high resolution format.) While you are at it, trawl through the other resources on the site to get a real feel for what Pallywood is about. It’s an epic.
