It's official: Government inquiry finds al-Dura 'killing' was a hoax

As I reported last week, a government commission of inquiry has concluded that the Mohammed al-Dura 'killing' was a hoax. The official report has now been released.

The government review committee of the incident and its implications found that "the France 2 report's central claims and accusations had no basis in the material which the station had in its possession at the time…There is no evidence that the IDF was in any way responsible for causing any of the alleged injuries to Jamal or the boy."

Prime Minister Netanyahu directed then-minister of strategic affairs Moshe Ya'alon to set up the governmental review committee in September 2012. According to the Prime Minister's Office "the purpose of the committee was to examine the al-Dura affair in light of the continued damage it has caused to Israel, and to formulate the Government of Israel's position with regards to it."

Upon receiving the report on Sunday, Netanyau stated that "It is important to focus on this incident – which has slandered Israel's reputation.  This is a manifestation of the ongoing, mendacious campaign to delegitimize Israel.  There is only one way to counter lies, and that is through the truth.  Only the truth can prevail over lies."

International Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, who presented the report to Netanyahu, called the al-Dura affair "a modern-day blood libel against the State of Israel, alongside other blood libels like the claims of an alleged massacre in Jenin.  The France 2 report was utterly baseless."

The committee determined that, " Contrary to the report's claim that the boy is killed, the committee's review of the raw footage showed that in the final scenes, which were not broadcast by France 2, the boy is seen to be alive."

In addition, the review revealed that "there is no evidence that Jamal or the boy were wounded in the manner claimed in the report, and that the footage does not depict Jamal as having been badly injured. In contrast, there are numerous indications that the two were not struck by bullets at all."

The committee added: "The review showed that it is highly-doubtful that bullet holes in the vicinity of the two could have had their source in fire from the Israeli position, as implied in the France 2 report."

The review committee criticized France 2, stating that the television station's report was "edited and narrated in such a way as to create the misleading impression that it substantiated the claims made therein."

I'm sure you're all shocked.

But 13 years later, with Israel having already 'confessed,' who is going to believe it?

UPDATE 8:04 PM

The government report (in English) is here.  The evidence that was before the government commission may be found here.