Attached and below, an original copy of Yoseff Doriel's original  report, on the killing of Mohammed al-Dura at
Netzarim Junction.
Doriel was commissioned by Major-General Yom Tov Samia to compile the report.
 

1. GENERAL

The killing was recorded by a Palestinian TV  cameraman, on September 30, 2000,  and broadcasted all over the world, blaming Israeli soldiers for doing it deliberately - by a professional sniper who saw exactly the target of his shooting.
Since then,  this  scenario is used for unleashed anti-Israeli  and anti-Jewish propaganda in the well known pattern of  TSW  - TV-Supported-Warfare.
The undersigned initiated a professional investigation of the case, based on his long-time experience in complex systems analysis, military operations research and combat activities under fire (see  shortened CV).

2. THE HARD FACTS

2.1 Confirmed by all sides: Israeli soldiers were confined to one outpost across the junction, at a distance of 110m from the victim and an angle of 30 degrees from  the brick  wall at the point where the boy and his father took shelter behind a concrete barrel. At this time, Palestinian outposts were dispersed all over the area - in front and behind the victim.

2.2 Confirmed by official representative  of the Palestinian Authority on channel 2 of Israeli TV - Oct. 31, 2000: The boy was killed by one bullet which entered his body from the front and left the body from his back (therefore no bullet was found in the boy's body).

2.3 The cameraman returned to the  scene of the event the day after,  and confirmed: the barrel behind which the boy took shelter was of concrete (not of sheetmetal), therefore no rifle-bullet could penetrate it from side to side ("Haaretz" newspaper, Nov. 7, 2000).

2.4 The film taken by the Palestinian cameraman revealed on the wall the only hole of the bullet  which penetrated the boy's body.

2.5 All the auxiliary facts, including  recorded noises, only support  the hereinafter conclusions.

3. CONCLUSIONS

3.1 The hole revealed on the brick wall behind  the boy's body, after he fell on the pavement, is the only evidence of a bullet which penetrated his body, as declared by the PA representative.

3.2 The location of the killing-bullet-hole is well inside the space protected from Israeli outpost sniper by the concrete barrel.

3.3  The killing-bullet-hole could  be caused only by a sniper facing the boy from the front (behind the bushes at the back of the cameraman),  and the noise recorded by the cameraman before the boy was seen dead  was of a very near-by weapon, with a sound quite different from the shooting heard before, from distanced outposts.

3.4 The armed outposts facing the boy from the front were manned only by Palestinians. Therefore, only  they could have killed the boy.  The same holds true for the bullets which wounded the boy's father: he was so deeply hidden in the corner between the wall and barrel - that only bullets shot from the front could hit him, and in no way  could they be bullets from the Israeli outpost which was at an angle of 30 degrees from the wall. It was impossible even from an angle of 43 degrees.

3.5 This behavior  of moslem militants is completely compatible with their old tradition  of sacrificing their own people for a political purpose defined  by their leader as the will of Allah. This makes them automatically holy martyrs - "Shahids" - gaining respect  from all their society towards the martyr and his family.  It is also known that suicide  bombers caught before explosion  by Israeli police  confessed that they were promised and believed that after their martyr's  death, they would become a "Shahid" who is entitled  to be a honorable guest in paradise.

3.6 Also compatible with moslem militants' beliefs is that  telling outright  lies is legitimate - if they are used against an enemy. Such is the lie they produced and spread worldwide - to accuse Israeli soldiers as heartless killers of innocent children. The last example of such behavior was seen on worldwide TV networks, when Yasser Arafat himself  demanded protection of his people from Israeli attacks, by repeating  again and again the outrageous lie regarding who starts  these attacks, when  all the world could see how his people initiate the  shooting and stonethrowing against Israeli civilians and soldiers, who react only in self-defence.

4. RECOMMENDATIONS
 

4.1 Israeli defence strategy didn’t catch up with the contemporary developments in TV-supported-warfare. It seems that nobody learned the lesson since the defeat of General Somoza in Nicaragua – July 1979. It’s a well known fact that the Palestinian Authority offers $2000 to every family whose child is killed in the new “intifada” (Jerusalem Post – Oct.6, 2000 ).
This is part of their child-recruitment practice, which is revealed again and again, when their officials order the closing of schools and send pupils of all ages to confront Israeli positions.
Child-recruitment is an international crime, and Israel has to sue those responsible for it in the proper judicial organs, including  the issue  of arrest orders against them, wherever they can be caught.

4.2 There are ways to fight aggression without providing a scene for TV-supported-warfare which the Palestinian authority people are looking for in every confrontation. The methodology of such warfare has to be worked out by appropriate Israeli organs. It reaches far beyond pure military tactics and has to be based on ideological, political, economical and psychological means as well.

4.3 As an example of political means to discourage the sending of “innocent civilians” to be killed in confrontation with Israeli soldiers, it is necessary to refer to the political goal of the PA  doing it: the more of their people will be killed, the stronger will be the demand to send an “international army” to defend them.
Behind such an “army” the PA hopes to revive the conditions in which their predecessors succeeded in the first phase of the 1948 war in  bringing  the Israeli defense forces to the verge of defeat on the main fronts: their attacks on Israeli towns, villages and roads were launched from behind the protection of British forces who carried out the policy of their anti-Israeli government.
The government of Israel has to make clear: the 1948 conditions will never return. Every foreign representative of a “force to protect Palestinians” – will be expelled on the spot. Therefore, forget about inviting such a force by means of killed Palestinians.

4.4 In scientific research of ways to save man-and-technology systems from running out of control, the undersigned disclosed a phenomenon called “surviving power of failures” ( page 52 in the book “Out of Running Mad Systems”).
When it happens, the power of perpetuating the failure overcomes that of correction. It seems that this phenomenon has prevailed  in Israeli strategic planning for over 2 decades, so only a general re-education of strategy-planning organs will be able to upgrade the conventional defense theories into contemporary ways of warfare.
 

Joseph  Doriel,  Ing.
Management & Development  Consulting Eng.
P.O. Box 21131, Tel-Aviv, Israel 62153, Telefax 972-3-605-9999
E-mail: orpark @ zahav.net.il
 
 

 DESCRIPTION OF THE SPACE HIDDEN FROM POSSIBLE IDF SHOOTING  BEHIND THE CONCRETE BARREL.

IN THE SCHEMATIC DRAWING (IN ORIGINAL SCALE OF 1:25) THE CONCRETE BARREL IS PRESUMED TO BE OF 70 cm DIAMETER.

 
IN CASE OF A LARGER DIAMETER THE SPACE HIDDEN FROM POSSIBLE IDF SHOOTING INCREASES
 JOSEPH DORIEL,  Industrial Management Consulting Engineer.
 

EDUCATION:      Haifa Institute of Technology
                               Industrial Management Engineering – 1952
                               Military Operations Research – 1958

AUTHOR:              “Management Systems Reports” – 1971
                                “National Security of Israel” – 1973
                               (Included scientific prediction of the Yom-Kippur War).
                                “Systems Madness” – 1981 (systems running mad)
                                “Out of running-mad systems” – 1996
                               Managing out-of-control, self-destructing organizations.
EXPERIENCE:

1985-1994             Director General, Israel Institute of Productivity
                               (equivalent to Deputy Minister in government), in charge of improving efficiency in government,
                               public and business enterprises and organizations.

1981-1984             Chairman, Public Management Efficiency Board, for improving efficiency and cutting
                               costs in government and public sector.
                               Chairman, Israel Association of Management Consultants.
 
1956-1980             Senior Partner, The Functional Planning Company, Ltd., Management consultants for industry,
                               transportation, regional and town planning and government and municipal services.
                               Clients include: leading Industrial enterprises, Israel Government Ministers, Israel Aircraft
                               Industries, Bus companies, Israel Railways, El Al Airlines, Israel Defence Forces.

1953-1955             Head of Production Planning and Control – Weapons Sector – Israel Military Industries.

1952-1953             Production Engineer in Israel Military Industries, in charge of the “UZI” submachine gun project.

MILITARY
SERVICE:             Israel War of Independence 1948-1949: Combat Missions along Northern Front; First
                               Group of Israeli Air Force Pilot-Cadets participating in Air-Battles.

INVENTIONS AND
INNOVATIONS:   Worldwide patented Parking Control System without parking meters; 8 registered patents
                               in transportation, energy and building industries; Development and implementation of
                               thematical models for functional town-planning, Initiation and planning of the Western-Negev
                               Agro-Industrial Center.

RESIDENCE:        23 Ahavat Zion Street, Tel-Aviv, Israel 62153,
                               Tel/Fax: 972-3-605-9999
 

 
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Readers will recall that this issue has been vigorously debated previously, especially because of the Australian connections.

An Australian pro-Palestinian email group promoting the picture 'Death in Gaza' on the MSNBC home page, Rachav's home page with extracts of Yoseff Doriel's report obtained second or third hand from others, the NSW SZC complaint which resulted in withdrawal of the MSNBC competition. Further vigorous support by Arab apologists of the Arab position on the picture, and denial of allegations that the Palestinians stage managed the ordeal as a publicity stint.

The apologists complained that there was no evidence that such a story had been printed by recognised media, that the information was second hand, not from a primary source of the original engineer's report, and that the Military had not supported such an explanation, and that Ha'aretz had refuted the report.

These citicisms, in all fairness are reasonable and require to be addressed. Taking them one at a time ...

1)The results of the Military Engineer's report has been reported by David Kupelian of WorldNetdaily, Oct. 13 edition of the Providence, Journal-Bulletin, USA Today, and Israel National News. I have just received an original copy of Vol 9 No 12 of WorldNet, the December 2000 edition which has on its front page headline 'Who killed Mohammed al-Dura, and inside a 10 page article. I am happy to supply copies off-line to interested parties. Rachav can now post the original report !!

2) I have finally managed to obtain an electronic copy of Yoseff' Doriels' original report, emailed to me by Yoseff Doriel himself, with permission to publish. This nine page report makes fascinating reading, in particular his four recommendations to the Israeli authorities on how to handle 'contemporary developments in TV-supported-warfare'. It also contacins his CV. Again I am happy to copies provide off line, to those interested, and have sent it to all the usual suspects for posting on their websites.

3) Although I have made inquiries, I do not know for sure why IDF Southern Commander, Major General Yom Tov Samia who hired Doriel, watered down his findings.On Nov. 27, Gen. Samia finally made the results of the IDF's official inquiry -- as distinct from Doriel's own analysis -- public: "A comprehensive investigation conducted in the last weeks casts serious doubt that the boy was hit by Israeli fire," he said. "It is quite plausible that the boy was hit by Palestinian bullets in the course of the exchange of fire that took place in the area." Samia has never given his reasons for watering down Doriels report, and has not technically faulted the report in any way. I have written to the IDF on the issue, but received no reply. I can only speculate the reasons were political / strategic rather than factual, as the Barak Government at that time, still believed that they could strike a peace deal with Arafat. Samia leaves open the possibility that Palestinian gunmen shot Dura and his father accidentally, from a position that put father and son between that of the Palestinian gunmen and the IDF stronghold across the junction. But Doriel doesn't think it was an accident. In addition to the forensic and ballistic evidence, Doriel points to a culture that has demonstrated not only the willingness, but the determination to send its young children to the front lines of its "holy war."

4) Ha'aretz never ever disputed Doriels' findings technical or otherwise, it merely reported Samia's comments. In addition Ha'aretz also reported "The cameraman returned to the scene of the event the day after, and confirmed: the barrel behind which the boy took shelter was of concrete (not of sheet metal), therefore no rifle bullet could penetrate it from side to side ("Ha'aretz" newspaper, Nov. 7, 2000), which supported Doriels' findings and conclusions. Ha'aretz put a bit of 'spin' on Samia's comments, and apologists put a bit of 'spin' on Ha'aretz's comments, which is fair enough. If one takes a position, one looks for evidence to support that position. However readers now have the opportunity to obtain a copy of Doriel' original report, weigh that against all the other comments, and make their own judgement.

The question may be asked, why all the bother? why indeed? Once again this is to counter Arab misinformation and lies, referred to by David Horowitz, editor of the Jerusalem report as ' PR - The second battlefield' and by major General Shlomo Gazit as ' The intifada of lies'. The lies and propaganda are as follows :

* Mohammed al-Dura has become the poster child, rallying cry and virtual symbol of the 2000 Al Aqsa intifada.( e.g the MSNBC picture competition, and the ballot stuffing perpertrated by an arab organisation )

* The dramatic footage of al-Dura's Sept. 30 death has been broadcast the world over. Palestinian television has created an edited version wherein pictures of an Israeli soldier shooting have been spliced into the original footage.

*Heart-wrenching photographs of the father and son have been posted alongside roads throughout the West Bank.

* Egyptian authorities are reportedly naming the street on which the Israeli embassy is located after Mohammed al-Dura.

* "This Israeli investigation is an attempt to hide the facts," countered Marwan Kanafani, a top aide to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, according to the Boston Globe. "The facts are that Israeli troops shot Dura and his father."

The SZC is involved in a concerted campaign to expose, neutralise and combat Arab propaganda, lies and deceit.

Brian Levitan President NSW SZC