A documentary broadcast this week on German television channel ARD found that 12-year-old Mohammed a-Dura, who was shot and killed while embraced by his father at the Netzarim Junction in the opening days of the Intifada and who became a symbol for the Palestinian uprising, was most likely shot dead by Palestinian gunmen firing at Israeli troops.

At the time, the dramatic heart-wrenching footage of Dura, caught in crossfire in a clash between Israeli and Palestinian forces in the Gaza Strip on September 30, 2000, was broadcast around the world and led to international accusations of Israel's excessive use of force and the IDF's possible intentional killing of the boy. Palestinian television later broadcast the footage repeatedly, issuing calls for children to follow Dura's footsteps into "martyrdom."

The German documentary, produced by Esther Shapira,

"I knew the truth all along." - Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yom Tov Samia, former head of IDF Southern Command

found that in all likelihood, Dura was not killed by Israeli gunfire. "It is not possible to determine with absolute certainty that Palestinians shot the boy, but the extensive evidence points, with high probability, to the fact that the Israelis did not do it," she told Yediot Aharonot.

Shapira, a Jewish German citizen, said she went into the project believing it was clear that "it was an Israeli who fired the shot since we were talking about a Palestinian boy." She told IBA English News that the purpose of the German television series was to "understand the truth behind the pictures we see on television."

In attempts to reach her conclusions, Shapira found three vital elements missing. No autopsy was performed after Dura's death, there was no ballistic report detailing the bullets which hit the boy and determining from which direction they were fired, and the wall behind where the boy and his father crouched for protection was destroyed by the IDF shortly after the tragic incident.

"Even so, it can be proven that the Israeli soldiers were stationed in low places, whereas the Gaza pathologist determined that the bullets that hit the boy were fired from above," Shapira said. The documentary stated that, in any case, the boy's death was accidental and that he was not purposely targeted by either side.

Among the questions raised in the documentary was whether television channel France 2, which filmed the incident, released all of the video footage in its possession. The cameraman, Palestinian Talal Abu Rahma, declined to comment on the ARD documentary, saying that he had to watch it first. In his initial testimony, Abu Rahma had claimed that no Palestinians had been firing at the time the boy was killed.

The IDF Spokesman issued an official apology immediately after Dura's death, but a later investigation into the incident indicated that the army was not responsible for the shooting. "From the investigation it became clear that [Israeli] soldiers did not shoot [at the boy]," said Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yom Tov Samia, who served as head of the IDF's Southern Command at the time. "I knew the truth all along. The IDF apology was not in my name," he told Maariv.

"I am 100 percent certain that the Israelis were to blame," said Jamal a-Dura, father of Mohammed, who was injured in the shooting. "I have medical reports, X-rays and reports by eyewitnesses confirming that we came under fire from Israeli soldiers," he said, quoted in Ha'aretz.

Documentary unlikely to change public opinion
Danny Shek, director of the Foreign Ministry's European Division, told the Jerusalem Post that the German documentary was "very significant" because it raised questions regarding the shooting. Even so, he had few expectations that the film would change the public's opinion of who was responsible for the boy's death. "Mohammad a-Dura will remain part of the Intifada's mythology, and it will not matter what kind of proof you bring to the contrary," he said.

Shapira was also doubtful that her documentary would change public opinion. She told Channel 2 television news that because she was Jewish, reports were already circulating in Germany suggesting that her work had been produced in cooperation with the Mossad, Israel's secret service.

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