The picture of the 12-year-old Mohammad Durra, who was killed by Israeli fire early October in the hands of his father has aroused an internet voting war between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli voters.
The photo of the boy is now No. 6, although supporters of the Palestinians have not given up, according to Herald Tribune, which said that pictures of pets have so far topped the winning list.
The contest "Year in Pictures 2000" is being conducted by MSNBC on its website, attracting so far 502,000 visitors to the site who have cast a vote for one of 49 competing photographs.
For the first three weeks of the "Year in Pictures 2000" contest, in which visitors to the MSNBC Web site vote for their favorite news photo of last year, the photo of the boy was the clear leader. But after a widespread e-mail campaign by supporters of Israel, MSNBC was besieged by votes for a puppy with maimed hind legs, a dog in desperate need of a fire hydrant and some cute and cuddly animal pictures, said the Tribune.
Some supporters of the Palestinians say a big victory for the widely distributed picture could bring sympathy to their cause. But some backers of Israel, including a diplomat in Los Angeles whose e-mail about the photo was forwarded across the country, want to make sure it does not win the most votes and attract even more attention around the world.
The disputed Palestinian photograph, called "A Death in Gaza," was in sixth place, more than 55,000 votes behind the front-runner, "Tough Pup." Other big news events were also fairing poorly, including the crash in Paris of the Concorde, which was in eighth place.
A spokesman for MSNBC.com, Benjamin Billingsley, said internal logs for the Web site, www.msnbc.com, showed that "A Death in Gaza" had been comfortably ahead from the contest's opening on Dec. 15 until the first week in January. He described the photograph's showing at that time as "organic," something not influenced by outside events.
Sometime around Jan. 8, the logs showed a massive influx of votes for other pictures, mostly those featuring dogs, cats and other animals. A short while later, another barrage of votes was tallied, this time on behalf of "A Death in Gaza," Billingsley told the paper.
"After the campaign began to debunk the photo, another campaign began to bring it back, but it was never able to return to No. 1," he said. "Ever since, the two sides have been trying to influence the position of the photograph."
In an official statement, MSNBC said, "While there has been vigorous debate between partisan groups over whether Israeli or Palestinian gunfire resulted in the boy's death, that is not and never was an issue in 'The Year in Pictures' feature, which seeks only to recognize the great and small, tragic and joyous events of 2000 that photojournalists have captured around the world." – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
