Caught in the Crossfire? ‘... I reach for my pen’
Inspired by Robert Fisk’s article in the Independent Sat 2 October 2000 following the death of Mohammed al-Durah on 30 September 2000
(With bodhran accompaniment in 6/8 time)


Caught in the crossfire?
Caught in the crossfire?
Caught in the crossfire?

Netzarim Junction, Gaza City
Netzarim Junction, Gaza City
Netzarim Junction, Gaza City

Caught in the crossfire? No way out
Caught in the crossfire? No way out
Caught in the crossfire? No way out

Mohammed al-Durah, twelve years old
Mohammed al-Durah, twelve years old
Mohammed al-Durah, twelve years old

Caught in the crossfire? We saw him cry
Caught in the crossfire? We saw him cry
Caught in the crossfire? We saw him cry

‘For the love of God protect me Baba’
‘For the love of God protect me Baba’
‘For the love of God protect me Baba’

Caught in the crossfire? Terror revealed
Caught in the crossfire? Terror revealed
Caught in the crossfire? Terror revealed

They scream against the killing rain
They scream against the killing rain
They scream against the killing rain

Caught in the crossfire? The bullets strike
Caught in the crossfire? The bullets strike
Caught in the crossfire? The bullets strike

Dead in his father’s lap he lies
Dead in his father’s lap he lies
Dead in his father’s lap he lies

Caught in the crossfire? Israel lies
Caught in the crossfire? Israel lies
Caught in the crossfire? Israel lies

Mohammed al-Durah, 12 years old
Mohammed al-Durah, 12 years old
Mohammed al-Durah, 12 years old

Caught in the crossfire? Mohammed al-Durah
Caught in the crossfire? Jamal al-Durah
Caught in the crossfire? Amal al-Durah
Caught in the crossfire? Bassam al-Babesi
Caught in the crossfire? Israel lied
Caught in the crossfire? Palestine

Caught in the crossfire?
Caught in the crossfire?
Caught in the crossfire?

Victory to the Intifada!
Victory to the Intifada!
Victory to the Intifada!
David Clinch


Bassam al-Babesi was a Red Crescent ambulance driver who was shot trying to save Mohammed and Jamal al-Durah



Where 'Caught in the Crossfire' Can
Leave No Room for Doubt
by Robert Fisk
(from the 2 October 2000 issue of The Independent)
When I read the word "crossfire", I reach for my pen. In the Middle East, it almost always means that the Israelis have killed an innocent person. When the Israelis fired shells into the United Nations compound at Qana in southern Lebanon in 1996, Time magazine printed a photograph of a dead baby with a caption saying it had been killed in "crossfire". This was untrue. The baby had been killed in the Israeli bombardment along with 105 other civilians which started after Hizbollah guerrillas opened fire on an Israeli army unit that was laying booby-trap mines inside the UN zone.

So when 12-year-old Mohammed Al-Durah was killed in Gaza on Saturday and I read on the Associated Press wire that the child was "caught in the crossfire", I knew at once who had killed him. Sure enough, reporters investigating the killing said the boy was shot by Israeli troops. So was his father who survived and so was the ambulance driver who was killed trying to rescue the boy. Yet BBC World Service Television was still saying yesterday morning that Mohammed Al-Durah was "caught in the crossfire of a battle that has left hundreds wounded and killed many others". I knew what this meant. True, the Israeli soldiers who killed the boy may not have known whom they hit. They were apparently firing through a wall. But why the reluctance on the part of journalists to tell the truth? Why was it that in its report from Jerusalem on Saturday, the AP only mentioned in paragraph 17, for heaven's sake, that Israeli troops, on the word of their own officer, fired anti-tank missiles during the confrontation? What was the Israeli army doing using missiles against rioters? By yesterday afternoon, the story had been transformed into a "blame" conflict. The Israelis blamed the Palestinian authority for organising riots. BBC World Service Radio ran a tape of an Israeli official stating that rioters were "shooting Molotov cocktails and stones" which "kill people". A listener might have been forgiven for thinking that 22 Israelis had been killed rather than 22 Palestinians in the previous 72 hours. The BBC then ran a tape of Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian spokesman, saying that the Israelis, not the Palestinians, had been shooting.

Truth is a hard bullet to bite. Palestinian policemen had also opened fire on the Israelis. Ironically, the Arab press in Beirut had no hesitation in saying this. The press in Lebanon showed photographs of Palestinian policemen firing Kalashnikov rifles at Israeli troops. But, given the fact that they did not kill Israelis -one of them was hit while firing- was it not worth mentioning that the Palestinians were the victims, not the Israelis?

When BBC Television got round to mentioning Ariel Sharon's flagrantly provocative visit to the Haram Al-Sharif on Thursday, they yesterday called him an "Israeli leader" when for Palestinians he was the man who bore indirect responsibility (according to Israel's own inquiry) for the massacre of up to 2,000 Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut 18 years ago. The BBC correspondent, Paul Adams, was one of the very few who bravely drew attention to Sharon's appalling record, pointing out Sharon had "an extraordinary capacity to leave [...] destruction in his wake." And so, by last night, the story had changed. No longer did Israeli soldiers and policemen kill at least 22 Palestinians in three days; now the question was whether the Palestinian Authority organized the riot that "led" to their deaths. The Israeli soldiers, who disobeyed every human rights commitment by firing on rioters with live rounds, were respectfully called the "Israeli security forces", disregarding the fact that "security" was the one thing Israeli soldiers were clearly unable to provide. On CNN and the BBC and other satellite chains, reporters were asked if the killings would upset the "peace process", with no willingness to explain that it was the collapse of the peace process which lay at the heart of the riots. The Muslim holy areas of Jerusalem were "disputed" although UN Security Council resolution 242, upon which the "peace process" is supposedly based, demands the withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories captured during the 1967 war, including East Jerusalem.
What lies behind this, apart from the sheep-like inability of many journalists to call a spade a spade, was the continuing belief that Palestinians are, by nature, violent and riotous. The United States called for an end to the "violence" this courtesy of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright without making any reference to Sharon's grotesque visit to the mosque grounds of East Jerusalem. By yesterday afternoon, the BBC were at it again, reporting that "Israeli authorities were bracing themselves for what may lie ahead". Weren't the Palestinians also doing that?


One Day Story Of A 12yr Old Boy Called Mohammed Al-Durah

This is not a 'Long American movie' where the American hero is always in control, using the latest hi-tech arms to kill criminals, and the 'enemy'. This is a live scene from the street of a densely populated city, where more then 1 Million Palestinians spent their whole lives in camps, and under Israeli occupation, the following story is from Gaza City in the Gaza strip , which is sometimes not on the maps of Americans.

It is just the start of the winter in Gaza where children play in the narrow corridors of the camp in the rain. Yes, it is raining, but not water , it's raining bullets, rockets, and Palestinian blood.

The city has been boiling with anger for three days now (as is in all of Palestine) reacting to the provocative visit of Sabra & Shateela terrorist, Ariel Sharon, to holy site of Al-Aqsa mosque, and to the massacre carried out by the Israel army, and police in Al-Aqsa mosque on Friday during prayers, killing and wounding many worshipers. Gaza, where the first Intifada started (1987) , joined from the first day the new Al-Aqsa Intifada, showing their anger, and demanding that the world re-visit the issue of Palestine, and appealing to the Islamic world to protect Al-Aqsa and Al-Qouds ( Jerusalem ) from the Israeli plans to destroy the holy mosque, and replace it with their claimed 'Temple' which was never found, and archeologically proven to have never been there.

Mohammed al-Durah (a 12 years old boy ) , opened his eyes to the news of Al-Aqsa Intifada, dreaming of a chance to participate, there was no school today, as per the general strike role. The loving father took him, as usual, to the market in order to go on with the family's daily life.

Mohammed's destiny took him with his father to Al-Shuhada road, there is no other way home. Did they reach home?

They were ambushed with a heavy rain that was very heavy, and continuous for more then 45 minutes. The rain was coming from one direction toward Mohammed al-Durah and his father, it was raining live red killing bullets from inside a well secured place in Netzarim, an Israeli kibbutzim in Gaza city . The helpless father and his son were shouting at the Israeli killers to stop the shooting, and at the world to help save their lives.

The rain stopped, only after Mohammed took his last breath , and the father couldn't shout for help any more , an ambulance driver lost his live by
attempting to rush the boy, and his father to medical care.

The Israeli message to the world was clear, "We will kill any Palestinian alive, regardless of his/her age, sex, armament , if they were protesting or not, throwing stones or not ... we have orders to shoot live ammunition, on any moving body, in head or chest ... shoot to kill ... , that's the order, we will kill also any one who will try, or even consider helping or saving any of our targets ."

What kind of people kill a 12 yr old boy in his father's lap, and even kill a red cross personel for trying to save the boy, and his father from the massacre ?

This story is just one of hundreds which was not told to the world .
Esam Shasha
Editor of Palestine - Home Of History
Reviewed by: Wa-El Elsin, U.S.A.

This is the news coverage of the story of Mohammed al-Durah :-
Mohammad al-Durah was shot dead in the arms of his father who was trying to shield him after they became caught under Israeli fire near Netzarim in the Gaza Strip.

This terrifying last moments were captured by French television and shocked the world.

For 45 minutes, Muhammad and his father trying to hid themselves behind a small concrete barrel as bullets rained around them. Israeli troops had fired relentlessly, even shooting at an ambulance that had tried to rescue Mohammad and his father , ambulance driver ( Bassam al-Balbesi ) was also killed , and a second ambulance driver was wounded.

Eventually both were hit, Mommahad four times and killed on the spot, Jamal al-Durah survived but was also critically wounded and will suffer permanent paralysis in his right hand.

This is the father Jamal el-Durah reaction to the killing of his son.

Quote "I appeal to the entire world, to all those who have seen this crime to act and help me avenge my son's death and to put on trial Israel.

I also plan to take Israel to the international courts and ask that the criminals responsible for the death of my son be punished.

It is the worst nightmare of my life... My son was terrified, he pleaded with me, 'For the love of God protect me, Baba'.

I will never forget these words." Unquote

We will all not forget Mohammed el-Durah



Ecce Puer

Of the dark past
A child is born;
With joy and grief
My heart is torn.

Calm in his cradle
The living lies.
May love and mercy
Unclose his eyes!

Young life is breathed
On the glass;
The world that was not
Comes to pass.

A child is sleeping:
An old man gone.
O, father forsaken,
Forgive your son!

James Joyce 1932

Note: This poem was written "on the occasion of his grandson's [Stephen's] birth and soon after his father's death." (Levin) The title in Latin means "lo! a boy."