Letter in Wall Street Journal about the Al-Durra forgery

Media Malpractice*

June 4, 2008

Regarding your May 27 editorial, "Al-Durra Case Revisited," and Nidra Poller's accompanying op-ed, "A Hoax?":

When meeting history in our own lives we normally mistake it for everyday turmoil. Some even say history can't be recognized at all when it happens, only decades later. So special kudos to the Journal for recognizing that the al-Durra story is, and the recent verdict can become, history. And for having the insight and the guts to be the first global mainstream media outlet to speak up about the al-Durra verdict.

You wrote: "It's hard to exaggerate the significance of Mohammed al-Durra" as a story and "the significance of last week's French court ruling that called the story into doubt." Very true. The al-Durra case was the start of an era of unprecedented hate offensives against the Jewish state, the U.S. ("the Great Satan") and the whole West. In this era it became standard practice for part of the Western media to accept "news" from the most abundant suppliers -- terrorist entities -- without scruple, and without checking whether it was genuine or manipulated for propaganda purposes.

The recent verdict is not a historic turning point yet, only an opportunity to become one if its truth is spread to the world as the Journal initiated, and if the West consistently condemns media malpractices like France 2's with al-Durra.

Endre Mozes
Chairman
Take-A-Pen.org
Haifa, Israel

* Original title of letter as sent: WSJ Recognizes History