Nahum Shahaf (Hebrew: נחום שחף; born 1946[citation needed]) is an Israeli physicist, best known for his role in an October 2000 Israel Defense Forces (IDF) investigation surrounding the shooting of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, Muhammad al-Durrah. Prior to the investigation, Shahaf had worked with the IDF on the design of unmanned aerial vehicles, and had been known primarily as an inventor, having received an Israeli Ministry of Science award for creativity in 1997 for his work on compressed digital video transmission.[1]
Background
Shahaf served as an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) paratrooper from 1964 to 1966.[2] He attended Bar-Ilan University from 1970 to 1977, where he earned Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Physics.[2] After graduating, he spent two years working on computerized tomography at Elscint. From 1981 to 1988, he worked at Tadiran on unmanned aerial vehicles for the IDF.[2] He then worked on attack helicopter missile systems at Israel Aerospace Industries from 1989 to 1991.[2] Beginning in 1992, he worked for a company named Natop.[2] Shahaf received an Israeli Ministry of Science award for creativity in 1997 for his work on compressed digital video transmission.[1]
According to Israeli reporter Amnon Lord, "Nahum Shahaf has worked in Israel's defense establishment as a physicist for the optical intelligence unit of the IDF. He has contributed much in various ways to the defense system, and was among the leading developers of pilotless light aircraft and video instrumentation. Shahaf investigated the damage done by the Iraqi missiles in 1991, and concluded that part of the damage was caused by Patriot missiles.[3]
Shahaf describes himself as "a scientist, a physicist specialized in ballistics and the technology of filming images."[4]
Al-Durrah investigation
In 2000, Shahaf approached IDF Southern Commander Major General Yom Tov Samia and proposed an investigation of the al-Durrah shooting. Samia agreed, and on October 23, 2000, Shahaf helped to arrange a re-enactment of the shooting on an IDF shooting range, in front of a CBS 60 Minutes camera crew. In late November 2000, at the conclusion of the inquiry, General Samia presented his findings at a press conference, explaining that the findings were "based on measurements, bullet angles and evidence that the Palestinian boy was hit by a volley of gunfire while Israeli soldiers were firing only single shots."[5]
Response
Journalist Stephanie Gutmann pointed to "odd" discrepancies that resulted from Shahaf's investigation. "Shahaf... spent months painstakingly collecting, wheedling, even buying footage from reluctant cameramen, and then spliced the pieces together in rough temporal order in an attempt to make an unbroken film of the day."[6] Shahaf and the Al-Durrah 'staged incident' theory have been criticized by several commentators. Israeli newspaper Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post argued that Shahaf had no ballistics experience, and Haaretz described his investigation as "dubious."[7][8][9][10][11] Shahaf is currently suing Haaretz for libel.[12]
Shahaf describes himself as "a scientist, a physicist specialized in ballistics and the technology of filming images."[4]
Supporters
Shahaf's investigation into the incident was supported by an external French ballistics expert and 2 investigative documentaries by German network ARD. The original "raw" footage was presented in French courts in late 2007 in the midst of a libel suit filed by France 2 against a French media critique, Phillip Karsenty, resulting in the court asserting that the original report has not been properly established. Follow up reports on the al-Durrah incident break-down into those who agree that the original report, which asserted the death of the boy was inflicted by Israeli bullets, was faulty and those asserting that the investigation into the matter is a "conspiracy mania".
Journalist James Fallows writes that:
"It now appears that the boy cannot have died in the way reported by most of the world's media and fervently believed throughout the Islamic world. Whatever happened to him, he was not shot by the Israeli soldiers who were known to be involved in the day's fighting—or so I am convinced, after spending a week in Israel talking with those examining the case."[1]
Shahaf received the Abramowitz Israeli Prize for Media Criticism from Israel's Media Watch association in 2008,[13] for what the awarding panel described as "revealing the truth behind news fabrications" in relation to the Al-Durrah incident.[14][15]
Views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Shahaf said:
"I believe that one day there will be good things in common between us and the Palestinians.…But the case of Mohammed al-Dura brings the big flames between Israel and the Palestinians and Arabs. It brings a big wall of hate. They can say this is the proof, the ultimate proof, that Israeli soldiers are boy-murderers. And that hatred breaks any chance of having something good in the future."[16]
Notes
- ^ a b c Fallows 2003.
- ^ a b c d e Template:Languageicon נחום שחף - קורות חיים
- ^ Who Killed Muhammad Al-Dura? Blood Libel-- Model 2000 Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Amnon Lord 15 July 2002
- ^ a b The Mohamad A-Dura affair: a gross imposture?[dead link] MENA interviews Nahum Shahaf (Copy) Cite error: The named reference "Guysen" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ Israel claims Palestinian gunmen may have shot boy in high-profile killing[dead link] AP - November 27, 2000
- ^ The other war: Israelis, Palestinians, and the struggle for media supremacy, Stephanie Gutmann, Encounter Books, 2005, p. 75.
- ^ Cygielman 2000.
- ^ Battle rages over fateful footage "media conspiracy theory ... troops could not have shot the child" The Age (Australia), 26th Oct 2007. Verified 23rd Oct 2008.
- ^ Al-Dura and the conspiracy freaks "the fountainhead of al-Dura conspiracy mania" Jerusalem Post, 28th May 2008. Verified 23rd Oct 2008.
- ^ Derfner, Larry Get real about Muhammad al-Dura. Shahaf "pioneered ... conspiracy theory after cutting his teeth on the Rabin assassination" Jerusalem Post, 18th June 2008. Verified 23rd Oct 2008.
- ^ Mohammed al-Dura lives on "eccentric obsession .. also obtained "amazing material" on the murder of Yitzhak Rabin" Haaretz, 7th Oct 2007. Verified 23rd Oct 2008.
- ^ Template:Languageicon תביעה בסך 400 מיליון נגד "הארץ"
- ^ Template:Languageicon Press release - 2007 Abramowitz Israeli Prize for Media Criticism
- ^ Template:Languageicon Omedia[dead link] זוכי פרס ביקורת התקשורת: שחף וקרבצ'יק
- ^ Template:Languageicon Haaretz פרסים מטעם האגודה לזכות הציבור לדעת ליבגניה קרבצ'יק, נחום שחף וגיא רולניק
- ^ The Israeli-Palestinian War: Escalating to Nowhere p. 373 by Anthony H. Cordesman and Jennifer Moravitz Greenwood Publishing Group 2005
References
- Cygielman, Anat (2000). "IDF keeps shooting itself in the foot", Haaretz, November 7, 2000, accessed March 22, 2010.
- Fallows, James (2003). "Who shot Mohammed al-Durra?", The Atlantic, June 2003, accessed March 21, 2010.