We’ve kept tabs on the new Israeli report saying that Muhammad al-Dura’s killing in Gaza in 2000 was staged, and particularly on the New York Times account of the report treating it as serious when so many others have written it off. Our friend Harry Hjalmarson sent the following letter to the New York Times the other day. He allowed us to publish it.

Hello,

On Monday, May 20, 2013, my Kindle edition of the New York Times displayed an article titled “Israeli report casting new doubts on shooting in Gaza” by Isabel Kershner. This report seemed definitive until I reached the end of the article. In the last portion, I learned that the investigative body had never contacted the father of the boy. At that moment, I understood that the report is military propaganda.

Now I infer that this article was simply an attempt to help the Israeli government with their whitewashing of this particular shooting. Although many others have been reported, this one received special attention because it was part of a documentary. This was evidently the reason for the new investigation. I assume that the aid of the New York Times was requested to publicize the results. Finally, Isabel Kershner seems to have agreed to use her journalistic credibility in the form of her name on this article.

I note that in the future I will ignore anything out of the ordinary reported by Isabel Kershner because I won’t know if she wrote it as a reporter or in some other role.

Harold P. Hjalmarson

Albuquerque, NM