THEY STILL DON'T GET IT

The Associated Press reports that Jamal al-Dura father of Mohammed, who became a national symbol when he was killed during intense fighting in Gaza on 30 September 2000, was briefly detained at the weekend by Hamas security for allegedly shooting in the air during a family wedding. Al-Dura, described as a "supporter of the moderate Fatah movement", denied the accusations saying "he can't carry guns because of his medical condition." - Hamas security detains father of iconic Palestinian boy.

The report covers the story of Mohammed Dura's death but fails to mention the fact that the videotape of the incident is currently the subject of a French court hearing in which that story is being seriously challenged as part of a premeditated campaign to stir up violence among the Palestinian population at the start of the "second intifada".

One of the few media outlets to cover the story is Scotland's Sunday-Herald. Very few other mainstream new outlets around the world are even touching it despite its significance to our understanding of the violence and death that followed the incident.

This shouldn't be considered unusual these days. The Melbourne Age for example, today carries its second story in recent days sourced from the London Guardian on the forthcoming Annapolis meeting in which Israel's occupation and settlements are mentioned but there's nothing about the obligations of the Palestinians to arrest and disarm terrorists - to essential first phase requirements in the now dormant Road Map to Peace in the Middle East which the PA repudiated before the ink dried on that agreement in 2003.

There's no mention either of the daily firing of quassam rockets by Palestinian terrorists into Israeli homes, schools and other civilian areas. These things have been airbrushed out of existence but they still happen and the media still don't get it!