In Memory of Mohammed Al-Durrrah

On September 30th 2000 Mohammed Al  Durrah and his father were filmed crouching behind a concrete block along one of Gaza streets as Israeli army soldiers showered them with heavy gunfire. Moments later, the terrorized boy collapsed dead on his father’s lap whose attempts to shield his son from live ammunition proved to be futile.

This incident became one of the most evocative events of the occupation and haunting images of the intifada. Jamal al-Durrah and his 12-year-old son, Mohammad, were filmed by Talal Abu Rahma, a Palestinian cameraman freelancing for France 2, they are seen with their, backs pressed against the wall, Jamal’s arm shielding his young son whose mouth is oval with what must have been a paralyzing fear. And then the shots. After an emotional public funeral, the 12 year old became a symbol of the struggle of the Palestinian people against a ruthless occupier.

After initially taking responsibility for killing Mohammad, a bogus Israeli army investigation concluded that the killing of Mohammad was a hoax, that Palestinians were to blame, that the France 2 journalist who shot the video was part of a conspiracy to ‘delegitimise Israel’.The Prime Minister’s office released a document  officially denying Israel’s responsibility for the death and stating that the 

footage was staged.But the boy did die in conflict and his own father could not save him.

Abu  Rahmeh told the Al-Monitor news website that his French employer had posted on YouTube the entire raw video to put an end to attempts to discredit him through claims that the footage was staged.

The footage of al-Durrah was popular because it captured human emotion, he said: “It moved the world and whoever saw it because it reflected a real human emotion of a father unable to protect his young son.”

Here is a report by the Guardian newspaper on the case, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/may/23/israeli-report-denies-death-al-dura. Thousands of other Palestinian civilians died too and he symbolized their plight.The footage, became the most potent symbol of the Palestinian resistance against the decades-long Israeli occupation.Drawings and pictures of the scene were painted on walls across many parts of the world in support of the Palestinian cause.

The fact remains that Israeli soldiers still do kill little Palestinian boys on a regular basis,with impunity sometimes just for throwing rocks.Human rights groups’ reports are never short on distressing details: 954 Palestinian children were killed between the Second Intifada in 2000 and Israel’s war on Gaza, the so-called Operation Cast Lead in 2008. In the latter war alone, 345 children were reportedly killed. Years years later, we should remember this terrified boy, remember his name and all the other innocents since trapped in the fogs of war and occupation.