Israel Officially Declares Al Dura Footage Staged
Ainit the truth! You work on a story for years, and the day you oversleep your mailbox spills over with breaking news. “Al Dura death was staged. It’s official.” Everybody and his brother gleefully informed me of the breaking news.
Nathan Sharansky in the Wall Street Journal
Dany Seaman, director of Israel’s Government Press Office–responding to a letter from chairwoman Nitzana Sarshan-Leitner, informing him that Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center intends to sue France 2 Jerusalem correspondent Charles Enderlin–declared officially that the France 2 al Dura report was staged. Shurat HaDin wants the GPO to cancel France 2 credentials unless and until the state-owned French TV channel turns over the raw footage as formally requested by Israeli army officials. Stopping short of this measure, in accordance with the recommendations of Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, Seaman officially declared that the al Dura report was a hoax that had caused untold harm. The Prime Minister’s office-no surprise-has officially declared that it has made no official declaration on this issue.
As it happens, I got the scoop when I visited Dany in July. Here’s what I wrote:
The next day, a pleasant walk through Independence Park leads me to the Beit Agron Government Press Office and one of my favorite straight talkers, GPO chief Danny Seaman. My man hangs in there, warding off varied and sundry militants and freeloaders trying to wrangle press credentials, and resisting pressure from a Foreign Office that thinks giving-in is a way of making friends and influencing people. We go over the latest developments in Gaza, he deplores the wasted opportunity. ‘Israel should give Hamas an ultimatum, release Gilad Shalit in 5 days or we’ll cut off the electricity, shut down the water supply…’ The Foreign Press Association is already negotiating with Hamas -’safe’ passage into Gaza in exchange for ‘fair’ coverage. And how about this zero-approved Israeli government? The left wing media and establishment won’t let Netanyahu win. It doesn’t even matter anymore. We need Giuliani in the US, Sarkozy in France, Merkel in Germany… They’re starving in Gaza? So why don’t they smuggle in food instead of weapons? Gaza will be the first successful Muslim Brotherhood country; all the surrounding Arab nations will be endangered if it succeeds. I leave with these and other words of wisdom, and a temporary GPO press card, renewable at each visit to Israel.
And here’s what I didn’t write:
Dany told me that Shurat HaDin is going to sue Enderlin for the al Dura hoax and the terrible damages it has entailed. Dany asked me not to publish information about the lawsuit until it was officially announced. Charles Enderlin, the France 2 Jerusalem correspondent who has been peddling and defending the al Dura hoax beyond belief, is known by his detractors in France as “Scoopy.” I kept my word, didn’t scoop the story, went about my business, and here it is, full blown and sweetly perfumed. Everyone who has worked on the al Dura affair knows there is no magic bullet. It is an intricate puzzle, and it will be put together by painstaking efforts from many directions. But recent developments, stimulated by Karsenty’s appeal of his 2006 conviction for defamation of Enderlin and France 2, are more than promising.
So, the first thing you want from me is a r√©sum√© of reactions in the French press. That’s easy. I heard an extensive account of the affair this morning on Juda√Øques FM.
What else is new?
A quick review of today’s reports of Seaman’s official declaration demonstrates the chilling success of the al Dura hoax: many journalists describe events at Netzarim Junction on September 30, 2000 as if they were an authentic context for a questionable incident. If and when the 27-minutes of raw footage is projected in the French appellate court (the court order will be issued tomorrow, PJ Media will be there), the whole truth will begin to emerge. September 30, 2007 was almost entirely staged!
Jamal al Dura and the boy identified as his son Mohamed were not caught in the middle of a relentless firefight between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen and/or policemen; they were performing the lead roles in a day-long production organized to trigger the “al Aqsa Intifada.” The al Dura “death” scene is one of countless scenes staged that day. Raw footage shot by a Palestinian cameraman working for Reuters, turned over to Israeli physicist Nahum Shahaf, is available for viewing on the site created by historian Richard Landes. Landes, who has also viewed the 27-minutes of footage shot by Talal Abu Rahma, testifies that it is composed of approximately 24 minutes of the same type of staged scenes found in the Reuters tape.
It appears that there was one brief firefight between Israelis and Palestinians at the junction that day. The al Dura scene was not filmed during that episode.
As I explained in a Commentary article published in September 2005, distracted commentators maintain the authenticity of the al Dura “death” scene based on what they think they see in the scene itself, and what they have been led to imagine as its realistic context in a zone of fierce combat. They do not even examine, let alone question the narrative by which the al Dura story has been inserted into current events.
Countless journalists are describing the 27-minutes of raw footage as if it were–as Charles Enderlin has consistently claimed, as his cameraman declared under oath-27 minutes of the 45 minute ordeal of a man and a boy pinned down by Israeli gunfire. I saw raw footage of Esther Schapira’s interview with Talal Abu Rahma; the cameraman explains why the 55-second excerpt (from the 27-minute film of the 45-minute incident) looks as if it were filmed in real time. The dramatic gestures that engraved the al Dura’s on the world’s psyche-the crouching, the waving, the shouting in horror, etc.– says Abu Rahma, were repeated off and on throughout the 45-minute incident. Filmed intermittently, then mounted, they give the effect-he claimed-of a single incident in a 55-second time frame.
My eye!
Charles Enderlin is defending his news report and his cameraman all the way down to the finish line. Far from cringing in horror at the thought of what the world will discover when the raw footage is projected, he is waving the V for victory:
“We plan to show the film in court in France, and I am certain it will end the repeated mudslinging.” (quoted in Ynetnews.com)
Has he already forgotten that last year’s three defamation trials were supposed to put the affair to sleep forever?
Your correspondent will be on the lookout for reactions in France …expect a long list of no-comments…
Myths, once they are inserted and settled into people’s mind, are nearly impossible to dislodge. Perhaps the Post-modernists who gave us deconstruction, can start constructing a psychological, literary, judicial methodology for de-mythification.
Two precedents come to mind:
1. The relatively successful model of of de-Nazification, which aimed, among other things, at loosening the grip on the German mind of myth upon which the Third Reich was erected. and
2. The failure of the discovery of the “Judas gospel” to even make a dent on the traditional Christian narrative. You may remember that The Gospel of Judas gives a different view of the relationship between Jesus and Judas. contrary to what canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell, in which Judas is the very embodiment of an avaricious traitor, this Gospel portrays Judas as acting at Jesus’ behest when he turns him over to the authorities.
Somehow I can’t believe that this news about a staged film that shows a small child being killed by Israelis will have much currency among the Palestinians.
“Somehow I can’t believe that this news about a staged film that shows a small child being killed by Israelis will have much currency among the Palestinians.”
Most assuredly these new revelations will be considered part of a Zionist plot. Conspiracy theories are rarely destroyed by facts. Lee Harvey Oswald was a convinced Communist. And yet, many Americans believe that he was part of a right-wing plot. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion remains a hot seller throughout much of the world.
Noga,
Although the truth, when finally exposed, will not have much currency among the Palestinians, it may well have increasing currency in Europe and America.
Does it ever occur to you that in order to spend all day planning and organizing terror attacks, the Pali Jihadis need a source of income other than work. And where does this money come from? Donations, much of them from well meaning Westerners who have been duped to believe the Palis are a persecuted side. This is why this affair is so important, not in Gaza but in Paris and London. No money – no terror.
“…the Israeli government has officially labeled the France 2 footage as fake.”
Beg to differ with this hasty conclusion. More here:
http://simplyjews.blogspot.com/2007/10/daniel-seaman-and-mohammed-al-dura.html
Snoopy,
The link you give seems broken.
As to Shurat Hadin, I think they can sue Enderlin even without going into the business of fake or not. His private admission, as reported by Richard Landes, that Talal withdrew the affidavit and that therefore there is no proof that the Israelis shot Muhammed, is enough. From that point onwards his public insistence on the original broadcast is a lie and, since at that point it was already known that the picture is being used as incitement to murder, possibly makes him accessory to murder.
Enderlin is going to regret suing Karsenty. If it weren’t for that, the affair might have gone to sleep.
Anat, I don’t have any problems with what Shurat Hadin are planning and wish them luck.
Here is another attempt at this link.
http://tinyurl.com/2xtwdl
Hope it works this time around.