The al-Dura Hoax Is Over

Richard Landes is reporting that the French court of appeals has dismissed charges against Phillipe Karsenty.

Karsenty was sued by France 2 for suggesting that France 2 Middle East Chief Bureau Charles Enderlin deliberately lied when he broadcast as fact that Israel had killed 12 year old Palestinian boy Muhammed al-Dura just as the intifada had broken out in September 2000.

Enderlin didn't just suggest that Israeli bullets had killed al-Dura. He claimed that they deliberately targetted al-Dura.

3 pm... everything has turned over near the Netzarim settlement in the Gaza Strip...here Jamal and his son Mohammed are the targets of gunshots that have come from the Israeli position.... A new burst of gunfire, Mohammed is dead and his father seriously wounded.

But now...the Hoax is over. France 2 lied and covered the incident up for almost 8 years by refusing to release the full footage of the dramatic event. From the Jerusalem Post

The French Court of Appeals on Wednesday found in favor of Jewish activist Philippe Karsenty, overturning a lower court decision that he had libeled France 2 and its Jerusalem correspondent Charles Enderlin when he accused them of knowingly misleading the watching world about the death of the Palestinian child Muhammad al-Dura in the Gaza Strip in 2000. "The verdict means we have the right to say France 2 broadcast a fake news report, that [al-Dura's shooting] was a staged hoax and that they duped everybody - without being sued," Karsenty told The Jerusalem Post shortly after the verdict was issued at 1:30 p.m. Paris time.

The propaganda value of the incident was especially useful in South Africa where the Palestinian lobby on university campuses hijacked the South African struggle by equating the al-Dura (hoax) with the very real images of Hector Peterson.

The damage is done and the truth is not likely to reach many people, but it's a lesson to be learned that with great courage the fight for the truth can be victorious.

May Hector Peterson's legacy no longer be corrupted.

Whatever happened that day in Gaza, it definitely had nothing to do with racism or "apartheid" policies, which this South African activist wanted us to believe.

Comments

[Hillel]

"But now...the Hoax is over."

And yet, I'm prepared to bet big bucks that you'll see Al Dura, together with the Protocol's at DURBAN II, your local lefty braai and the Little Mosque on the Prairie.

The more things change ...

[Gary]

Believe me the discovery of facts means nothing to Israel-haters.
They will never let something as mundane as truth or facts to stand in the way of some good venomous Israel-bashing.
Canadian ultra-left Israel-hating academic Michael Neumann said: ""If an effective strategy means that some truths about the Jews don't come to light, I don't care. If an effective strategy [of helping the Palestinians] means encouraging reasonable anti-Semitism, or reasonable hostility to Jews, I also don't care. If it means encouraging vicious, racist anti-Semitism, or the destruction of the state of Israel, I still don't care."

[Castor Troye]

Steve, although the actual reasons behind/surrounding the event seem to have been a lie, let's not forget that a boy did actually die here. Perhaps the word hoax, is a bit strong to describe his death.

[Gary]

Why have the names of Jewish children deliberately killed by Arab terrorists been completely forgotten?

[BLACKLISTED DICTATOR]

On 21 May 2008, the court overturned Karsenty's libel conviction. It found that his claims had clearly been "undoubtedly damaging [to] the honor and reputation of information professionals". However, the court found that his claims were nonetheless within the boundaries of permissible expression in the context of media criticism. The judge commented, "it is legitimate for a monitoring agency to investigate the media, because of the impact of the images which were reviewed across the world, [and] on the conditions in which the report was filmed and broadcast." The court ruled that the evidence presented by Karsenty "did not allow it to rule out the opinion of [France 2] professionals", but rejected Bartoli's assertion that Karsenty's evidence was "neither complete nor serious". Although the court did not endorse Karsenty's views, it stated that "the examination of [the] rushes [makes it] no longer possible to dismiss the views of professionals heard during the case" and had put in doubt the authenticity of the reporting.
Karsenty told the press shortly after the verdict was issued, "The verdict means we have the right to say France 2 broadcast a fake news report, that al-Dura's shooting was a staged hoax and that they duped everybody - without being sued".
In response, France 2 pledged to take the case to the Cour de cassation, France's highest court.