UPDATED: More than 12 years after France 2 aired a report claiming that Israeli soldiers shot dead 12-year-old Mohammed Al Dura, an Israeli government review committee has concluded that there was no evidence for those claims and that the report was used as propaganda that provoked violence and hatred against Israel and contributed to the delegitimization of the Jewish state. CAMERA sorts out the claims and counter-claims. 
Blaming the IDF for nearly 1,000 child deaths, a Ha'aretz editorial dismisses the Israeli government report on Al Dura as "dubious," "barely serious." But Ha'aretz's own accusations, based on distortions of B'Tselem figures, are just that. An Israeli government review committee concluded that a Sept. 2000 France 2 broadcast alleging Israeli soldiers killed Mohammed Al Dura -- a claim which spawned intense hatred and violence against Israel -- had no basis in fact. This confirms what many skeptics have been contending all along, but has not laid the issue to rest. 
Not for the first time, New York Times news blogger Robert Mackey distorted the views of fellow journalists by cherry-picking quotations and presenting them out of context. The latest victim (aside from Israel, of course) is The Atlantic's James Fallows. A private French TV channel is found guilty of slander after airing a documentary accusing media monitor Philippe Karsenty of manipulating information to support the perspective that the broadcast of Mohammed Al Dura's death on France 2 was staged. 
The Churchwide Assembly of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) passed a balanced resolution about the Arab-Israeli conflict that calls on Lutherans to learn about the perspectives of both Israelis and Palestinians.
NBC Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel likened the killing of Neda Agha-Soltani to the discredited Muhammad al-Dura story and, when challenged to correct the false analogy, network news president Steve Capus ignored the issue completely and cited the numerous journalistic awards of his reporter. 
The New York Times' faulty news judgement has struck again – front page coverage of the seven Palestinian students in Gaza who were temporarily denied their Fulbright scholarships, but none of a major French court decision in the famed Muhammad al Dura case. The court decided in favor of a critic's right to charge the event was a "hoax." Update: The French Court of Appeal rules to overturn the lower court ruling that found Philippe Karsenty guilty of defaming France 2 and Charles Enderlin. For years, Charles Enderlin of French public television network France 2 has been battling accusations that his September 30, 2000 newscast of a Palestinian boy allegedly shot to death by Israelis was staged. The Israeli government has now joined the chorus of voices that insist the broadcast was staged for propaganda purposes.