UPDATED: ISRAEL: PALIS STAGED AL-DURA DEATH

Israel: Palestinians Staged Death of Mohammed al-Dura in 2000 - Barak Ravid
The September 2000 death of Palestinian child Mohammed al-Dura in Gaza was staged by a Gaza cameraman, Government Press Office Director Daniel Seaman said Monday. France 2 television had broadcast the original footage of al-Dura's death on September 30, 2000, the second day of the Second Intifada. "Israel was accused of murdering a small child after the event by the world press and his image has been burned into the collective Arab memory as a symbol of the brutality of the Zionist state," Seaman wrote in an official letter. Yet "the events of that day were essentially staged by the network's cameraman in Gaza, Talal Abu Rahmeh." (Ha'aretz)

See also Palestinian Propaganda Coup - Natan Sharansky
The al-Dura incident is part of the insidious trend in which Western media outlets allow themselves to be manipulated by dishonest and politically motivated sources (recall the Jenin "massacre" that never was, or the doctored Reuters photos from Israel's war against Hizbullah in 2006). Tragically, there is no way to repair the damage inflicted on Israel's international image by the France 2 report, much less restore the Israeli and Jewish victims whose lives were exacted as vengeance. It is possible, however, to deter slanderous news reporting - and the violence that often accompanies it - by setting a precedent for media accountability via the handover of Talal Abu Rahmeh's full 27 minutes of raw footage. (Wall Street Journal)

UPDATE: SEE ALSO: The al-Dura Hoax by Nidra Poller (Contentions)