The video depicting the savage murder of Muhammad al durrah in Palestine while his father attempted to rescue him shook the world.
In 1998, Muhammad al-Durrah, 12, was fatally shot by Israeli gunfire as his father tried to shield him. The footage became the iconic image of the Second Intifada.
A TV crew from the France 2 network, led by Palestinian cameraman Talal Abu Rahma, captured the harrowing final moments of Jamal al-Durrah and his son Muhammad, trapped in the crossfire between Israeli military and Palestinian security forces.
The disturbing footage showed the father gesturing and the boy sobbing behind a concrete cylinder, before Muhammad was tragically shot and succumbed to his injuries.
Charles Enderlin, the station’s bureau chief in Israel, provided the voiceover for part of the clip aired on French television, confirming the boy’s death and attributing the attack to Israeli forces based on information from the videographer. Muhammad was mourned as a martyr in the Muslim world.
The video of the event sparked worldwide shock and outrage. In Ramallah, a mob attacked IDF soldiers, while President Clinton expressed dismay, Bin Laden called for revenge, and the crowd chanted “revenge for Al-Durrah.”
The young boy, Muhammad Al-Durrah, became a symbol of Palestinian victimization and was held up as a testament to the brutality of the IDF and Israel.
Despite the Israeli government’s attempts to discredit the video, a French court ruled in 2013 in favor of France 2 and Abu Rahma’s defamation claim against Philippe Karsenty, a French media analyst who alleged that the video had been staged.
Abu Rahma, who has received numerous accolades for his work, including the Rory Peck Award in 2001, now resides in Greece with his six-year-old wife and child and is not allowed to return to Gaza since 2017.
Statement by the Former Prime Minister
Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani, the former prime minister of the Gulf state, cautioned that a third Palestinian intifada could break out if there is no international reaction to the escalating Israeli oppression in the occupied territories.
“The lack of any response, condemnation, or protest, whether from Arab or international capitals, to the cold-hearted killings in the occupied Palestinian territories confirms that what Israel is doing goes unpunished and uncriticized,” HBJ stated in a series of tweets.
The term “Intifada” refers to uprisings against the Israeli government, the first of which occurred between 1987 and 1993, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,300 Palestinians.
Between 2000 and 2005, during the second Intifada, Israel is estimated to have killed 4,973 Palestinians. It was during this period that the 12-year-old Palestinian, Muhammad Al Durrah, was ruthlessly murdered by the Zionist state in front of the entire world.
