The Moving Finger writes

 …and, having writ,
Moves on; nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

Thus wrote the Persian poet, Omar Kayyam, way back in the 11th century, in Edward FitzGerald’s famous translation of the Rubaiyat.

His words are as  true today as ever they were – and never more so than when they concern Israel’s image in the world.

On September 30th, 2000,  in the early days of what later became known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada (the reasons for the name are based on the lie that Israel was planning on taking over the Temple Mount and destroying the Al-Aqsa Mosque),  an exchange of fire took place between Palestinian snipers and Israeli soldiers. A twelve year old boy, Muhammed al-Dura, was supposedly caught up in the crossfire, together with his father, and killed by Israeli soldiers.

That, at least, is the way the story was portrayed on the French TV channel, France 2. The boy’s father, Jamal, claimed that his son was shot in the back by “the Zionists” and little Muhammed became an official martyr for the Palestinian cause.

Except that later investigations proved that the child’s death – if it happened at all – could not possibly have happened the way the Palestinians claimed. Most important – it has been proved by more than one independent probe, that Muhammed al-Dura was not killed by Israeli soldiers at all. Yet when French journalist and media analyst Philippe Karsenty accused France 2 of doctoring the video footage of the alleged “murder”, he was sued for libel. Although France 2 won in the court of first instance, the judgement was overturned by the Court of Appeal in May 2008.

The France 2 video has been proven over and over again to be a fraud. Furthermore, the boy’s father, Jamal, claimed that he too was shot and wounded in the incident by Israeli soldiers.  As “proof”, he adduced the scars which, he claimed, were incurred in the incident. However, an Israeli doctor, Dr Yehuda David of the Tel Hashomer Hospital,  revealed that the scars were, in fact, the result of surgery he himself had performed on Jamal several years earlier,  when treating him for wounds sustained when Jamal al-Dura was attacked by Hamas terrorists as a suspected Israeli collaborator. Al-Dura sued the doctor for libel and for breaching doctor-patient confidentiality. Incredibly, despite the fact that the medical records proved the doctor’s claim, al-Dura won his case and was awarded 13,000 Euros compensation, while back in Israel, Arab Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi (who has frequently abused his parliamentary privilege), had the unmitigated gall to demand that the doctor be prosecuted for revealing confidential medical files! Two days ago, however, on February 15th, the verdict was overturned by the Court of Appeal.

The lie continues to be perpetuated, however. France 2 still refuses to release the complete, unedited footage of the incident – a refusal which can only be attributed to their certain knowledge that the unexpurgated version would finally lay to rest a lie which is nothing less than a blood libel against the Jewish State.

Or would it? I fear that the damage cannot now be undone. The Moving Finger of Pallywood, presented under the auspices of France 2, has written and moved on.  The lie has, by now, taken such a hold that, to paraphrase what Omar Kayyam wrote, almost nine centuries ago:

… nor all your Evidence nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Proof wash out a Word of it.