PARIS — This week, Talal Abou Rahme gave a gathering of international ombudsmen a gripping glimpse into the world of a foreign correspondent covering one of the most horrible conflicts in the world.
Abou Rahme, a 14-year veteran correspondent now working for France 2 television, is the journalist who last fall filmed the death of 12-year-old Mohammed al-Durra, when the boy and his anguished father were caught in the crossfire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen. He was the featured speaker at the opening of the Organization of News Ombudsmen’s annual conference in Paris.
The Palestinian-born journalist told how it was almost by chance that he caught the boy and his father, Jamal al-Durra, on film Sept. 30, early on in the conflict, which has to date claimed at least 465 lives.
On that day, he went to a section of Gaza and began filming young Palestinians throwing rocks at a tall tower used as an Israeli defensive base.
Through a series of outtakes from his film, Abou Rahme showed how the violence escalated that day. He knew Israeli soldiers were inside three tall towers. He could see their guns sticking out of small holes.
As he described the events, the film showed how the violence began to escalate. Soon rocks and stones were replaced by handmade bombs. Rubber bullets and tear gas were used, he said. Eventually, gunfire erupted.
As the fighting raged, he caught sight of the father and screaming child huddling for cover by a long, low, partition. The young boy crouched near his father, who was screaming and beckoning for help.
Then came the most heart-wrenching episode in the film. For a flicker, as the father beckons, the film shows Abou Rahme’s head bob up briefly in front of the camera as he instinctively flinched to move to help the father and son. Then he stopped as the gunfire was still raining down.
“There was nothing I could do,” he said to delegates, his voice still heavy with pain and anger. “It was raining down bullets.”
Several seconds later, the boy collapsed dead against his father, who then slumped forward, unconscious.
Asked by one convention delegate if he thought news cameras encouraged violent behaviour on the part of the youth in Gaza, Abou Rahme was adamant. They do not, he said.
He was always careful to cover his camera and to blend with local residents to avoid stirring up any tension. “Plus,” he added, “there are places too dangerous to go and there are no cameras there,” he said. “Many people still get killed in these places.”
Abou Rahme is troubled by allegations his film was doctored to be used as Palestinian propaganda. France 2 television made a point of showing it all to the international readers’ and viewers’ advocates partly, I believe, so there could be no doubt.
He grew most livid when discussing charges that he somehow conspired with the boy’s father to make the child a martyr. “Sickening . . . nonsense,” he said in an interview.
His life has been radically affected by the film, which has aired around the world. He said he has paid a great deal for the pictures, paid with his freedom and his family has been affected. He hopes both Israelis and Palestinians will “learn a lot” from that images he shot and find some way to peace. If only this courageous journalist’s hope could come true.
