Israeli Defense Forces allegedly shot dead Mohammed al-Dura, a 12-year-old boy, on September 30, 2000 during a gunfight in Gaza, and it was all supposedly captured on video. Al-Dura’s martyrdom was hailed by millions of Muslims at the outset of the second intifada. Osama Bin Laden even commented, “In killing this boy the Israelis killed every child in the world.” The only problem? Based on their position, IDF forces could not have been responsible. Indeed, there are plenty of analysts, including Professor Landes of Boston University, who have concluded the entire video is staged and the boy’s death was possibly fabricated. In 2006, years after fairly conclusive evidence had emerged, Philippe Karsenty was nevertheless found guilty of libel by a French court for claiming that French TV staged the footage. Fortunately, that decision has just been overturned.
This is good news to be sure, but the battle still isn’t over. The Court of Appeals refused to rule on the veracity of the footage, and French TV is appealing the decision. Given the expense of speaking up even when there is ample evidence that one is speaking truth, how long can it really be before everyone instead opts for silence?
