Al-Dura was only 12 when he was shot and killed in an exchange of fire between the Israeli soldiers and Palestinians in a, then-unimportant, crossroads in the occupied Gaza territory. He was cowering behind his father, when they were both shot, resulting in his death and injury to his father.

The image of Mohammed and his father have now become a symbol for the Palestinian struggle. Throughout the Middle East, streets and squares have been re-named al-Dura in his honor. Arab hardliners and activists alike call al-Dura a hero or a “martyr” of their cause, although he was simply a boy in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Rather than concentrating on the causes of the conflict and what can be done to put an end to the decades of blood-letting, certain groups are posing a new question: Who really shot al-Dura?

IN a recent article, James Fallows writing for the Atlantic states” 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.”

I will not argue that research by “academics, ex-soldiers and web-loggers” whose agenda in unknown, is suspect at best. I will not dwell on the fact that the site of the shooting which included buildings surrounding the square has been leveled to the ground by the Israeli army “for security reasons”. Frankly I don’t care who really shot the innocent young boy. To me he remains a symbol of the cancer upon the body of the Middle East. A symbol of the struggle for freedom and a land to call their own on the part of the Palestinians. A symbol of the violence that has plagued Israel. A symbol of desperation on both sides. Finding who really shot Mohammed al-Dura only adds to the rift by laying the blame for the madness at the feet of the other side.