Wednesday, November 10, 2010

FAIRFAX AND BAMBI

The ailing Fairfax news group has adopted the Palestinians as their modern day bambi. Last weekend, those readers who still remain were treated to a six page flyer that was nothing short of a free advertisement for our local Palestinian lobby groups.

Al Age Palestina included a great deal of the mythology that has been pushed by this segment of the media including a rehash of Paul McGeough's one sided flotilla story and a remarkable revelation by one Palestinian bambi that she was drawn to the tragedy of the Palestinians by the story of Mohammed Al Dura.

The problem with that is that the story of Mohammed Al Dura's tragic death has been played out in the French courts where journalist Phillipe Karsenty exposed it as a hoax. To this day, Karsenty is working hard to get the truth out and is a hero for the cause of truth in the way events that happen in the Middle East are depicted by the media.

Although Fairfax doesn't acknowledge it in the Al Age Palestina flyer in last week's Good Weekend the truth is that footage of the youngster's death in Gaza was photographed by a Palestinian photographer Talal Abu-Rahma, who handed it to French journalist Charles Enderlin from TV station France 2 who, in the early days of the First Intifada, showed less than 60 seconds of the 27 minutes taken. It was used as a 'sensationalised scoop' but when the footage was later examined in French courts it revealed the play-acting hoax gone wrong. It was alleged that Enderlin had edited the footage to remove the evidence that it was fake. The ballistic evidence also ruled out Israeli involvement and it is now clear that Al Dura was killed by "friendly fire".

The incident sparked years of violence and killing and activated people like Al Age Palestina's bambi and ten years later the hoax is still given credence by desperate journalists and a desperate news organisation that refuses to give balance to a tragic story.

2 comments:

asherpat said...

"it is now clear that Al Dura was killed by "friendly fire"."

Indeed? First of all, there is no proof that the boy seen on the clip was killed at all, this is the "hoax" suspicion that even you refer to.

And secondly, even if he was killed, this cud not have been "friendly fire". Since we know that Israeli soldiers cud have not ballistically shoot the boy and the father, and the Israeli soldiers were 90 degrees from the Arab position ("pitta") in relation to the Al-Duras, the only fire that cud have hurt them must have been intentional coming from the Arabs, perhaps as a part of Pallywood staging gone wrong - which is not the definition of "friendly fire" that denotes accidents when soldiers get hit by their own but by MISTAKE. In the case of Al Dura, if indeed it were the Arabs shooting (and there are seconds in the clip when there clearly bullets slam pependicularly (so they can not come from Israeli position) into the wall behind the Al Duras) this was very intentional, perhaps not to kill but to enact the staging.

Look-up Pallywood on the web.

TBS said...

"news"?

Don't you mean fiction outlet?