Meet the Man Who Exposed the Al-Dura Hoax
Energetic tired determined intelligent harried impatient boyish argumentative charming brusque — those are a few adjectives that come to mind as one attempts to describe Philippe Karsenty, the tireless talking thorn who has embedded himself in the side of France’s government-owned television channel, France 2, and even more firmly between the ribs of its revered Franco-Israeli Jerusalem correspondent, Charles Enderlin, the reporter responsible for having perpetrated what is now often referred to as the “Al-Dura hoax.”
It all began almost ten years ago — on September 30, 2000, when France 2 ran a 50-second tape of what appeared to be the death by Israeli fire in Gaza of Mohammed al-Dura, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, while he cowered in the arms of his father – a contemporary pietá for the Arab world. Enderlin, who had not been present at the scene, and whose editors had edited the tape from the roughly six minutes of footage sent to them by the channel’s Palestinian camera man (who had himself cut it down from 27 minutes of tape), plainly stated in his voiceover that the boy had been intentionally shot by Israeli soldiers and that he had died.
Initially accepted as fact, the report is now widely disbelieved, and no one can take greater credit for exposing and publicizing France 2’s fabrication than Karsenty.
“Do you know what is the bottom line of all this?” he told me recently. “It is the first blood libel of our 21st century, and it’s the beginning of the Israel-bashing of our 21st century, the beginning of the international jihad which started before 9/11. It [happened] a year before 9/11, and it [was] used by bin Laden to incite 9/11. So it’s really the starting point of the international jihad against the Western world.”
Karsenty was speaking in a booth of “Le Train Bleu,” a grandly ornate 19th century restaurant above the Gare de Lyon train station in Paris, from where he would shortly leave for Lausanne, Switzerland, to deliver a lecture. At 44 years of age, the former stockbroker, now an elected official in the Neuilly-sur-Seine district of Paris, has the tanned, gleaming epidermis of the lens-ready public figure. His eyes are a limpid brown, his lips well-shaped, and he is quick to flash a politician’s smile when faced with a camera.
The French art of diplomacy is not his strong point. He calls France’s most famously dashing politician a text-book anti-Semite, paints “self-hating” or ”cowardly” Jews with a broad and critical brush, and throws around politically incorrect opinions as casually as he drops a 100 Euro note to pay for his lunch. There is more than a touch of American impatience about him, but he doesn’t like what’s on view across the Atlantic.
“We are seeing America declining, declining, declining, and we are seeing Europeans so happy to see America following their path. The French so-called intellectuals are so happy with Obama putting America on its knees. For people who are fighting for the free world, it’s a disaster. Ask the Koreans what they think about Obama. I’m sure they don’t like him at all. Ask the Japanese. … It’s November or never, my friend.”
Even as the French news media does whatever it can to ignore him, Karsenty makes news. On June 10 he won a lawsuit in the court of Nanterre against the French pay station Canal + (a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal), which he had sued for defaming his character in the television documentary, Rumeurs, Intox: Les Nouvelles Guerres de l’Info. The film aired shortly before a verdict on April 24, 2008, in which Karsenty successfully appealed against a previous court judgment, in 2006, in which he had been judged guilty of defaming Enderlin’s character. But by 2008 he had marshaled enough evidence to establish that France 2’s report was journalistically shaky at best and his previous conviction was reversed.
GOOD LUCK KARSENTY.
You are making a very big difference in the world.
thank you
It was a mistake to save France from Communism. The elite and the people still won’t admit that Socialism and it’s toady twin anti-Semitism are not a viable governing philosophy. Communism might have forced them to wake up. Nazism didn’t Shame to see that Vichy may represent France more accurately than Clemenceau.
Has it already been ten years ago? I still marvel at the events that led up to and then the expose’ that revealed those many many people involved in the deceit against Israel. It is certainly a powerful group constantly plotting and planning the destruction of that nation.
This story is just one of the crashing waves that has woken us up and it is a wonder to witness. Did we doubt that truth would be uncovered as promised? Mr. Karsenty is certainly a brave soul, a David against Goliath. If he never achieves the victory he seeks in the courts, he should be assured that he is a part of the awakening. We see.
Karsenty is a hero who should be better known and appreciated here as we watch “court Jews” support the GZ mosque.
Intriguing, but rather soft on real information. I’d rather read what the nature of this hoax is asserted to be, rather than about soft brown eyes and a tanned epidermis. Was the kid not dead? Was it his own people that whacked him? Was he dead of disease? This kind of fluff should be with real pajamas, not here.
The hoax is old news. If you’ve been under a rock (or watching MSM) for 10 years, here is a brief summary (lucky google search of “al dura hoax”): http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/03/023028.php
This article is about how incredibly entrenched in their narrative socialists (both Jew and Gentile) are. An expression for this I first heard on Pajamas is “liberal cocoon”. They so want to believe their own propaganda that they end up deceiving themselves. A similar thing happened with L Ron Hubbard. He made up a new Sci-Fi themed religion from scratch, which became a huge profit center, but became so engrossed that he started believing it himself.
The good ‘ol boy system in France is a tough one. Everybody knows each other and their indifference to the truth is astonishing; their agendas rule the day. Communism is alive and well in France and it finds its expression in the Socialist system which of course is a necessary step towards Communism. The French system crushes ordinary citizens under its heavy-handed and monstrous beaurocracy that stiffles any attempt to move forward; need proof? One TV channel that carries an agenda for ten years before being exposed. Thought control by state-run media is scary and they are complicit in the attack of 9/11.
Mr.Karsenty is a warrior in my book; he faces incredible odds but miraculously he not only exposes corruption but also finds incredible tenacity to continue his battle. One man against all those cronies; amazing. This is one Frenchman that has some character; unlike most of the weak souless slobs that he has to deal with. Very sad indeed.
Go for it Mr.Karsenty…and may you inspire others to do the same.
“The CIA owns everyone of any significance in the major media” – William Colby, Former CIA Director
Sorry, did I miss something in this article? As I read it, Karsenty proved that Israeli soldiers did NOT murder a 12 year old Palestinian boy huddled in his father’s arms despite claims to the contrary by Charles Enderlin but the Israeli ambassador snubbed Karsenty in favour of his friend Enderlin? Has the whole world gone made or did I just misread the article? Why would an Israeli ambassador prefer the company of someone who was slandering his country and snub the guy who disproved the slander??
The quintessential definition of a hero, plus a person of high morals.
NOT simply because I agree with his efforts, but because he entered the lion’s den,a den of inequity filled with the Islamic beast and their evil twin – the radical left.
In any case, if he ventures back to my neck of the woods in Israel I would be honored to buy him the best meal Israel has to offer.
My name is posted here and my email is embedded. I ain’t kidding!
I watched the “Pallywood” video. Years ago I worked on the crew of some independent films. Amateurish, disorganized as compared to professional production companies.
Really, all that was missing was the craft services table.
French journalism is a hoax – and a joke at best.
Heard of Rathergate? Journolist? GE boss’s reprimand of CBS news for being tough on Obama? Journalist Fired For Talking About Obama/BP Ties (http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/journalist-fired-for-talking-about-obamabp-ties/)?
French journalism is a hoax, so is ours.
It’s just dispiriting. Ten years after Al Dura, all these journalists and politicians invested in continuing the Al Dura hoax and one, determined ballsy guy taking them all on. Governments, broadcasting networks, writers, etc. whose reputations are all on the line are going for broke with this one. If Al Dura really breaks into the West’s conscientiousness as a hoax, that all the hundreds of millions spent on the Palestinians, all the tens of billions lost in disruptions of our economy (probably more like hundreds of billions) and the loss of our cherished way of life here in the United States may be in part because of a hoax?
Well, it’s nice to read something about this character Karsenty. I’ve never heard the details of his travails – another media non-story – and it’s a good to see his energetic commitment and get some real details about what he’s been through.
All in all, it’s pretty unbelievable how much this one guy has sacrificed. Judging from the article, he’s paid quite a price and yet, as is made clear in the article, he just keeps on going. Having followed the Al Dura story since its inception., I have to admit that I’d never heard of Karsenty or his story, so kudos to PJM for covering him and putting a human face to the story because Karsenty deserves it.
This story is crazy but it really gives a good idea about the French elites, the Israeli elites and the French Jewish community.
1. The French Jewish community is the most right-wing and Zionist Jewish community in the world. Even its community leadership is now rightwing and zionist – but also afraid and boycotted by the mainstream media. The CRIF (the main Jewish body in France) used to be very consensual and loved by the media. Now they hate it.
On the other hand, the Jews of the media (journalists, intellectuals and so on) tend to be left-wing and anti-Israel. Not all of them. Sometimes they are left-wing and pro-Israel (but “critical” of Israel) – and even then they have to deal with hate and criticism from the msm who see them as crazy zionist fascists more or less (Alain Finkielkraut for example). You also have the very specific cases of people like Eric Zemmour or Elisabeth Levy who are right-wing journalists and usually boycotted by the msm – but Zemmour managed to become very very popular on a high ratings talkshow and is now untouchable.
2. The French elites – Karsenty said it better than me. They don’t care about the truth, they care about themselves and protecting their power and networks. But Karsenty is wrong – France 2 will never admit they lied. Never.
3. The Israeli elites – they don’t care about this story. In Middle-East time, this is like something that happened 300 years ago. And of course many are more interested in their good relationships with the French elites and media than anything else. Enderlin is very powerful, he is Israeli, he is very close to the Israeli left and was part of the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in 2000 – yes this is very wrong for a journalist. So he is protected by the Israeli media and powers that be. And as I said, the righwing Israelis are just not very interested.
Keep up the good fight,Mr. Karsenty.
Thank you.
the story of this kid is like many media stories generated about the troubles in northern ireland -the legend of the “frog” a hoarse voiced inciter of riots being an example but the notion that the father faked the death and buried another child is far fetched despite supposed biometric differences from film analysis. the father has offered to have his child disinterred for dna testing ….
but regardless it does still beg the question of what the hell israel are doing trying to run two concentration camps in the bits of someone else’s country that they have not already stolen. 1,440 other children have been killed by israel in the last 10 years with a further 318 killed in the New Year attacks at 08/09. and dead children is only one of hundreds of oppressions they visit on the palestinians daily.enough already ! Get the UN in there !
@14. phrage
You really hate Israel.
Get the UN in there.
The UN that Egypt kicked out, to attack Israel?
Or the UN complicit in the abduction and torture
of Israelis by Hezbollah?
Perhaps the OIC led UNHCR could spread some balm?
Who said the father faked anything?
Maybe he was just a bit player.
(Was he ever interviewed?)
Does it beg the question as to how many other lies,
fabrications, distortions, omissions, in a word
PROPAGANDA are issued by by Hamas’s own Dr. Goebbels?
Ask your friends at Hamas. Please.
I’m not surprized by the French reaction to Karsenty. It’s Dreyfus revisited.