March 30th or "Land Day" has been a significant date in the calendar of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 1976, when protests by Palestinian citizens of Israel during a general strike against land expropriation in the Galilee were met with deadly force that claimed six lives.
This year, as is the custom, Palestinians living both inside Israel and the Occupied Territories took part in a variety of activities ranging from olive picking and cultural festivals to demonstrations against the always-ongoing Israeli colonization.
In the Gaza Strip, a series of six rallies at border areas saw at least 9 Palestinians, including a 9-year-old, injured by live ammunition fired by Israeli troops and—apparently—one child killed. Agence France Presse reported:
"A 15-year-old Palestinian, Mohammed al-Faramawi, was shot dead east of southern Gaza town of Rafah near the heavily guarded border shortly before dozens of people marched to the site in a demonstration.
Gaza medics and witnesses said he was shot dead by Israeli forces, charges denied by the Israeli military, which said it had fired warning shots at demonstrators approaching the border but had not hit anyone."
I first saw a report of al-Faramawi’s death on the BBC’s website, where the story was published with an oddly punctuated headline:
“Gaza youth ’shot dead’ in border incident”
An earlier, bare bones version of the report—now updated—suggested that the perpetrators were either Israeli or Palestinian. I wrote to ask the Beeb:
"Why the quote marks around ‘shot dead’? Regardless of who was the perpetrator, he was still shot and died."
Apparently, it wasn’t that simple. BBC NewsOnline replied:
"We use quotation marks to indicate that we are quoting sources on information that we have not been able to confirm ourselves, or that we believe may be contested.
In this case, the only source was the Hamas-run Health Ministry and there was also a great deal of confusion and uncertainty about exactly what happened, which meant it was appropriate to keep the quotation marks.
Even 24 hours later, we are still seeking confirmation – the Rafah hospital says it has not received a body or certified a death, and from the information we have received, the teenager’s family are not 100% sure he is dead. We are continuing to seek confirmation on all the details of the story, while reporting, with appropriate attribution, the information that we do have."
AFP, while often the first wire service to report events, is also often the least accurate. In a situation where it wasn’t necessarily clear what had happened, it wouldn’t be totally shocking that they got it wrong.
The horses’ mouths
In the original AFP report, al-Faramawi’s killing by Israeli troops was reported by "Gaza medics and witnesses". The language used in the BBC report appears to draw suspicion on the source by attributing information to the "Hamas-run health ministry", as if there was a bearded Palestinian spokesman at the foot of every bed in the Rafah Hospital ICU.
In other media reports, the same information is attributed to a Dr. Muawiya Hassanein, director-general of the Ambulance and Emergency department in the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Dr. Hassanein seems an unlikely candidate for misinformation. You can find Lexis-Nexis newspaper database references to the good doctor as head of emergency services in Gaza in 2005, long before HAMAS were elected. The database contains quotes from Hassanein as far back as 2000, when he served as the head of the emergency room at Shifa hospital in Gaza.
The BBC report, amended since my initial contact, stated that:
"Early reports said Muhammad al-Faramawi had died during a protest, but later reports said the incident occurred before the demonstrations took place, and the main protests were held further north."
The BBC added that there was "speculation over whether the boy could have died in an intra-Palestinian dispute", quoting the Bethlehem-based Palestinian Ma’an News service, which reported mysteriously that:
"local sources who wished to remain anonymous said the death may have been an internal matter."
The New York Times echoed the BBC and Ma’an’s hesitation and suspicions:
"…local Palestinians said the boy had been missing since Monday, raising questions about whether he could have been the victim of internal violence."
The usually solid "Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory" from the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, covering the period of 25-31 March[6], makes no mention of al-Faramawi at all.
Habeus Corpus?
Even more bizarre in this seemingly open and shut report of yet another Palestinian child’s death, initially apparently confirmed both by eyewitnesses and medical sources, is the fact that no one seems clear on where the child’s body actually is. The BBC’s pieced-together narrative painted a bleak picture of a child left bleeding to death in the Gazan sun:
"It was initially reported that a Palestinian doctor told reporters that medics were not able to reach the body of the boy in time because of ongoing "clashes". An official from the Hamas-run ministry of health said the teenager "was left bleeding for hours" before paramedics were able to get Israeli permission to evacuate him."
Al Jazeera English, which frustratingly gives the source for its March 30th story as "Agencies"—even though AFP made no mention of this and I was unable to find any other wire service report that repeated this information—has Dr. Hassanein telling reporters that:
"medical teams and International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) co-ordinated with the Israeli army to collect the boy’s body."
Ha’aretz "and Agencies" offers the same narrative late on March 30th. Or was the final collection of the body simply inferred by reporters while this saga was in process? The New York Times also reported late on March 30th that:
"By nightfall Tuesday, Palestinian ambulances were still waiting to coordinate their entry into the border area with Israel in order to retrieve the boy’s body, according to Dr. Muawiya Hassanein."
It is entirely possible that the boy was killed prior to the clashes and that it was mistakenly assumed that his body—reported as unable to be retrieved due to the well documented trigger-happy Israeli troops on Gaza’s border—occurred during the Land Day protests.
But for such a contested death in such vague circumstances it seems strange that—as of April 1st—there have been no further reports on the fate of little Mohammed al-Faramawi, the state of his body, or even conclusively that his body was retrieved and he has officially been pronounced dead.
Nigel Parry is a former webmaster of Birzeit University, co-founder of the Electronic Intifada, and a longtime independent media activist, and currently lives in Pittsburgh, PA.
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A report last updated at 7:25 pm GMT on March 30, 2010 appears on Al-Jazeera’s Arabic website:
.
The report further states that two other Palestinains were shot at on the same day, one was shot in the northern part of the Strip during Land Day demonstrations at a town called Khaz’a, while another was shot in the Al-Mughazi refugee camp. The report states that “occupation forces” shot at the marches that took place in this northern part of the Strip with automatic weapons, injuring 12.
The report also states that according to Dr. Mu’awiya Hassanein and witnesses at the scene, the 15 year old youth had bled to death and that an effort is underway to coordinate the retrieval of his body from the area.
Quoting Dr. Mu’awiya Hassanein, the east Jerusalem-based Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds states that the boy’s body was taken to the “European Hospital”.
link to aljazeera.net
My apologies. Correction:
The two youths, one from the town of Khaz’a and the other from the refugee camp were not shot during participation in Land Day demonstrations. The two were shot in incidents unrelated to the demonstrations according to Al-Jazeera.
Thanks for the European Hospital lead. I contacted them to see if they can confirm this.
The problem still remains both that the child was reported missing the day before Land Day, that there are three credible sources who had done their own research and who are saying that this may have nothing to do with the Israelis, and that this story has two completely conflicting narratives which are still unresolved.
The New York Times, BBC, and Ma’an do original reporting and fact checking, which is why their reports are different on this specific killing. Everyone else is getting at least parts of their story from AFP and/or Ma’an News, who are the “agencies” cited.
As with the other media reports, the Al-Jazeera Arabic report you provide cites “Agencies and Al-Jazeera” as its sources, which therefore muddies the waters. Al-Jazeera Arabic reporter Ahmad Fayaad doesn’t attribute his claim that al-Faramawi was killed by shooting from the watchtower to anyone. It could be that he is just repeating what everyone else was saying initially. He doesn’t even acknowledge the Ma’an, BBC, or NYT hesitation about the narrative, as if he is unaware of it.
Just to be clear: I am completely aware that Israel shoots Palestinian children all the time and pretends it doesn’t, having seen that phenomenon with my own eyes while living in the West Bank for four years. The mainstream media often either under-reports or totally fails to report Palestinian deaths. However this particular story, about Mohammed al-Faramawi, has enough red flags to suggest that something else may be going on. Until that mystery is resolved by credible sources, the title of this article still stands.
Nigel,
Thank you for contacting the hospital. I am baffled as to why there is so much confusion in the press regarding this boy’s fate. I’m not sure what to make of it.
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This child (even under Israel Occupation rule where 16 is the adult age) is the victim of a plain straightforward case of trigger-happy IDF goons firing at anything that moves in their 1km ‘free fire’ zone on the Gaza border. The fact that his body wasn’t discovered for several hours is testament to the Israelis’ absolute control of Gaza and its border areas.
But all Gazans are terrorists. That’s all you have to know.
Not 16-years-old but 12-years-old.
“Don’t shoot till you can see they’re over the age of 12″
Amira Hass, Ha’aretz newspaper, 20 November 2000
link to ifamericansknew.org
Obama, at Seder, March 29th, 2010:
link to whitehouse.gov
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You know, someone really needs to kindly inform the Israeli government and military that all this shooting of children and making their bodies disappear mysteriously is really really bad for their image vis-a-vis the old blood libels.
Like I keep saying, the worst enemy the Jewish people have, are Zionists.
You know, you should really check your facts before you come with such statements because the kid is alive, was not ever shot, and you must know what the biggest enemy of truth are liers…
The fate is the same as it is and will be for everyone there whom has been shell shocked, and put into large camps (banter stands) with walls for target practice and testing newest weapons for defensive use against a rag tag buch of homemade rockets with dynamite. The one that comes to mind always with me was, the man and son trapped by resistance fighters and the occupation agressors where a bullet was found to have turned a corner and killed him, *whom could shoot around corners” ? the report stated by spokes person later. Just gunned down in cold blood with intent yes as later in the years we have watched the review of the weapon itself on cable tv show glorifying the most advanced killing machines created for use against an un armed for the most part populous. Does anyone feel like you awoke in a bad hollywood film yet, and just as the jews were made to help do the “gassing” the dumb palestinians are building the walls and settlements….WTF ! DUH !!! No wonder the world is in such F*%$@ UP shape.
If someone attackded you with a kitchen knife and you had a gun, would you drop the gun and look for an equal knife, or would you shoot the bastard?
Israel is fighting terrorist, similar to the ones who took down the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, similar to those who blew up in England, Spain, Russia and where else, and similar to those in Afghanistan and Iraq.
These terrorists are funded and armed by Iran and Syria and they are well equiped, way beyong “homemade rockets” but even that wasn’t the case – these terrorists try to kill Israelies and to destroy Israel (yes, that is their declared goal) and as such it is the Israeli army’s duty to kill them with whichever weapon available.
I will, however, ignore the reference to Mohammed a-Durrah, because you shouldo you homework about it, since it was proven as false publication, trying to frame Israel.
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IMPORTANT UPDATE
According to an April 2nd Arabic language article on the Ma’an News website, 15-year-old Mohammed al-Faramawi is alive and well after sneaking through a tunnel from Rafah in Gaza to Egypt.
Al-Faramawi was arrested with 16 other boys from Gaza by the Egyptian police, and was returned to Gaza via the Rafah crossing for a tearful reunion with his parents.
link to maannews.net
This is good news, but:
Who exactly was the 15 year-old boy who bled to death at the scene, witnessed by Dr. Mu’awiya Hassanein, whose body was taken to the European Hospital?
The confusion will give the Israelis everything they need to deny that they shoot children. This counter-tale ‘fact’ will turn up on pro-Israeli websites for years to come, (“Fake Teen Killing”, etc) so it’s worth persisting, Nigel, to get to the bottom of the story, and cut off its legs at the start.
My own personal take on the story is that some kids from Rafah turned out for their usual and regular ‘do-or-dare’ provocations of the IDF goons patrolling the borders, and got shot at. Then they all ran away, and went through one of the tunnels to Egypt, knowing the Israelis could identify them and perhaps pick out juvenile ‘leaders’ for ‘targetted assassination’ next time.
Mohammed al-Faramawi will have a laser target on his forehead for the rest of his life.
Thanks for commenting Richard,
The kid had been missing for a day before the clash, so presumably he and a bunch of buddies planned the trip to Egypt. One contact in Gaza thought he may have been going there to find work or to buy something he couldn’t get in Gaza, or maybe just because he’s a teenage kid… we don’t know yet.
Presumably the family/friends feared when he was missing that he was caught up in the clashes, which is how this whole series of “Chinese Whispers” started.
You’re doing the same thing as the media when you assume Dr. Mu’awiya Hassanein “witnessed” a boy bleeding to death. It doesn’t actually say that anywhere. Just because he was quoted saying that this was happening does not mean that he was at the scene. It makes no sense that the head of emergency services in Gaza would be on the front lines with ambulances. That’s not how things work in Palestine. He’d have been doing his job from some central location. He’s not much use to Gaza’s medical infrastructure if he’s running around in the field where he could get injured.
The parents probably reported the kid missing to the community, some of his friends/neighbors as you say “turned out for their usual and regular ‘do-or-dare’ provocations of the IDF goons patrolling the borders”, maybe there was a pile of rags in the danger zone that people assumed was a child as there had been plenty of kids already shot at that day and everyone was already wired to expect the worst….
So with all this assumption, the ICRC are called in to negotiate safe passage for an ambulance, and this is then all reported as if it were fact, as if it were happening. My guess is that there was never any boy bleeding to death, otherwise we would certainly have heard about it by now. I still have not heard back from the European Hospital but today was their weekend.
There are misreportings all the time in Palestine and in every warzone. One erroneous story hardly changes the overall narrative or dynamics of the conflict, and underlines the chaos of war. What is relevant about this story is that one of the earliest reports I saw that drew attention to this specific case was here on the Mondoweiss website: link to mondoweiss.net
You assert—perhaps a little dramatically—that this incident will have a major impact:
The subtext of what you assert is that I did something ‘wrong’ by drawing attention to this story. You are forgetting that key characteristics that separate just causes from unjust ones are honesty, integrity and accountability—exactly the same qualities that separate journalists from propagandists. It does no one any favors to make false claims. Israel makes false claims all the time. When those who oppose Israel’s brutal colonization catch errors when “wolf” is being cried, we demonstrate integrity. That is the point of doing this.
I’ve written about the issue of casualty statistics many times over the years precisely because they are so contested, so hard to get right, and because they underline just how long this bloody conflict has gone on. For those interested, here are a few URLs:
The under-reporting of Palestinians killed
Nigel Parry, The Electronic Intifada, 1 March 2001
link to electronicintifada.net
Permission to narrate: Edward Said, Palestine, and the Internet
Nigel Parry, The Electronic Intifada, 25 September 2003
link to electronicintifada.net
On Palestine’s Dead: Israel’s Chilling Concept of “Good News”
Nigel Parry, The Electronic Intifada, 8 December 2004
link to electronicintifada.net
Does Israel have a policy of killing Palestinian civilians?
Nigel Parry, The Electronic Intifada, 13 June 2006
link to electronicintifada.net
Dude, you’re amazing! Your hatred blinds you!
Did you even consider the option that Mu’awiya Hassanein is lying, knowing that people like you will use this against Israel whether this is the truth or a lie!?
thank you for bring this wonderful news nigel, every life counts! the first thing i thought of was his family and future wife, children and grandchildren and how happy his mother must be.
Well, Annie, I’m a bit of a more cynical old fart than you, and I don’t believe Israeli propagandists will give a tinker’s cuss about victim’s families, etc and their emotions(they’ve shown no evidence of doing so in the past).
Nigel: I don’t think you did wrong in publicising Mohamed’s resurrection, but I do think this will be the only bit of the story that persists long after the rest is forgotten, and I do think that if you give Israeli propagandists an inch, they will take a mile.
At the time, I wasn’t on one side or the other, but in 1975, my weekly apartment cleaner, who was Palestinian, from the Sabra refugee camp, came to work a few days late. Her eldest son had been killed by one of the nightly rocket attacks by Israeli jets on the Beirut refugee camps. Later, in 1982, the remainder of her family was massacred in Sabra by the Lebanese Phalange, closely supervised and witnessed by Ariel Sharon and his goons. Only she survived.
Richard, so what you’re saying is “you published something that was found as wrong but don’t publish a correction because it will prove that Israelies rightfully claim the media publish false Palestinian claims”?
All I can respond to this is “baaa, you make me sick” and thanks for proving Israel’s point.
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And the BBC finally gets the story straight:
link to news.bbc.co.uk
From the article:
After Muhammad returned home, Dr Hasanien said: “We were getting wrong reports from the officer in the field and we announced later in the day that we did not find the body.”
He added: “Anyway, thank God the boy is alive.”
Nigel Parry- Your reporting on this story shows that you are a journalist. One cannot expect journalism from the commentators on this site. This is no surprise. But apparently Barnabe Geisweiller feels no need to update his story of March 31st. I suppose he feels that since you are a journalist and have done the legwork on the story, that he is exempt from following up his own story with the facts as they emerged.
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The NYT website also published an update to their story on April 3rd:
link to nytimes.com