AFP RESPONDS TO FALSE ACCUSATIONS SURROUNDING A PICTURE TAKEN IN THE WEST BANK VILLAGE OF AL-DIRAT ON JANUARY 25
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE (AFP) WAS RECENTLY ACCUSED IN BLOGS AND IN A LETTER SENT BY THE ISRAELI EMBASSY IN WASHINGTON TO PROMINENT US NEWSPAPERS OF FILING A PICTURE TAKEN ON JANUARY 25 IN AL-DIRAT, WEST BANK THAT HAD BEEN STAGED. AFTER SEVERAL DAYS OF THOROUGH RESEARCH BY OUR JERUSALEM BUREAU, AFP WISHES TO CONFIRM THE VERACITY OF BOTH THE PICTURE AND THE ACCOMPANYING PHOTO CAPTION.

In a letter to US newspapers, the Israeli embassy in Washington wrote that the vehicle was in fact stationary and that medics from the Israeli Defense Forces and Red Crescent determined that the construction worker had not been injured. In its letter, the embassy asked newspapers to “issue a correction that the purported injury was not confirmed independently, contradicts medical examinations by both the IDF and Red Crescent, and was perhaps staged”. After casting doubt on AFP’s credibility and journalism ethics, it then asked the newspapers “to consider ceasing to publish the photographs of Hazem Bader”.
These claims are false.
AFP’s Jerusalem bureau and photo editor interviewed other media representatives present at the scene and watched video footage filmed by other colleagues showing the construction worker being carried away on a stretcher. Their trust in the events described by Hazem Bader is unequivocal.
Reporters from AFP Jerusalem bureau also interviewed the injured construction worker, Mahmud Abu Qbeita, on February 1 as well as the doctors that treated him at Yatta hospital. The following is a translation from Arabic of the medical certificate issued on the day of the incident : “Yatta Hospital Prescription for Mohammed Abu Qbeita To whom it may concern, The above mentioned person has attended the emergency service at the hospital. He was suffering from severe pain in his right leg. He said that an Israeli military vehicle ran over him. In the medical examination we found that he has pain in his right knee, pain in his pelvis, and pain in the neck, and has difficulty in walking. We conducted X-RAYS on him and found fractures. He has been advised to consult the orthopedic department."
Here’s a transcript of the interview given on February 1 by Mohammed Abu Qbeita: "I was working on this site for the first day. It was the first time I'd been working there. Some time after we started working the Israeli army arrived. All of a sudden, a lot of them, started saying it was forbidden to build there. I didn't know that because I hadn't worked there before, but they said it was forbidden and we had to stop and they wanted to demolish what was already at the site. They were shouting a lot and I started walking over to where my stuff was so I could get my phone and my ID card and that's when the tractor hit me. It hit me twice, first on my side, which knocked me over on the ground. Then it drove over one of my legs. I didn't see it coming. It went over one of my legs, one was under the wheel, the other one was outside it. (Asked whether he heard it coming) I didn't hear it, there was a lot of noise, a lot of shouting. Even if I heard something, I didn't respond because I never imagined that it would hit me. (Asked who was driving?) It was one of them driving, one of the army, the Israelis. I don't know who he was. It was our tractor, for our work, but he was on it and driving. (Asked if he went to the hospital?) Yes, I went to the hospital, they examined me and treated me and I have a medical certificate and I will show it to anyone who wants to see it. Anyone who wants can talk to me and take a picture of my leg and of me."
In the light of these inquiries and based on the trust we have in our photojournalist, AFP Management does not believes that this event could ever have been staged.
Given the ferocity of the attacks against the AFP Photo service, we have decided to release this statement in order to set the record straight. We will not make any further comment.