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Intro­duc­tion: As the 10th anniver­sary of the alleged death of Mohammed al-Dura approaches, this broad­cast details a sem­i­nal media hoax which has not only fueled global anti-Semitism, but con­tributed to jihadist pro­pa­ganda that fueled the activ­i­ties of Al Qaeda. This inter­view fea­tures inves­ti­ga­tor Phillippe Karsenty, pres­i­dent of French media watch­dog orga­ni­za­tion Media-Ratings.

Allegedly killed by gun­fire from Israeli sol­diers, Mohammed al-Dura was a young Pales­tin­ian boy who, along with his father, was sup­pos­edly caught in a cross­fire between Pales­tin­ian forces and the IDF. In fact, there is over­whelm­ing evi­dence that nei­ther Muham­mad nor his father were hit by Israeli fire at all. More­over, this inci­dent has served as some­thing of an oper­a­tional par­a­digm, in which obvi­ously staged inci­dents are accepted by global media out­lets as fact, stir­ring out­rage against Israel and Jews, in gen­eral. The pro­fes­sional sources for many of the Israeli atroc­ity sto­ries are, to say the least, sus­pect. Much of the so-called “expert” tes­ti­mony to such atroc­i­ties comes from Marc Gar­lasco, forced to resign from Human Rights Watch because of his obses­sion with Nazi mem­o­ra­bilia. (He authored a coffee-table book on Third Reich anti-aircraft her­aldry and dec­o­ra­tions, pic­tured at right.)

Filmed and broad­cast by France 2–the largest of that country’s pub­lic (government-owned) TV sta­tions, the inci­dent was an incen­di­ary point for the sec­ond Intifada, pre­cip­i­tated the lynch­ing of two Israeli sol­diers at Ramal­lah on 10/12/2000 and was used by Al Qaeda to recruit prior to 9/11. Wall Street Jour­nal reporter Daniel Pearl’s killers cited the al-Dura case when mur­der­ing the journalist.

After a Ger­man tele­vi­sion sta­tion broad­cast a doc­u­men­tary demon­strat­ing that al-Dura could not have been killed by Israeli fire, Phillippe Karsenty began his polit­i­cal and legal odyssey to set the record straight.

Using the evi­dence uncov­ered by the Ger­man (and sub­se­quent) inves­ti­ga­tions, Karsenty charged France 2 with broad­cast­ing footage that they knew was fraud­u­lent. In turn, Karsenty was charged with libel by France 2 jour­nal­ist Charles Ender­lin. After an ini­tial vic­tory by Ender­lin, a French appel­late court over­turned the ver­dict and ruled in favor of Karsenty.

Among the points of infor­ma­tion cen­tral to analy­sis of the case are: the fact that Ender­lin was not present at Net­zarim, Gaza, where the event took place; the angle from which bul­lets are strik­ing in the area are incon­sis­tent with Israeli mil­i­tary posi­tions [see photo above, left]; the fact that numer­ous Pales­tini­ans can be seen in out­take footage, casu­ally con­vers­ing and smok­ing cig­a­rettes in the mid­dle of a sup­posed fire­fight; the fact that, despite allegedly being struck by three and ten bul­lets respec­tively, nei­ther Muham­mad nor his father evi­dence any bleed­ing at all, nor do they show any signs of being struck by gun­fire [see photo at top right]; at one point, the allegedly mor­tally wounded Mohammed raises his head and looks at the cam­era, then lies back down and plays dead; the fact that Mohammed al-Dura’s [alleged] body was brought to the morgue before the inci­dent actu­ally took place!

In more detail, it should be noted that the fire was com­ing from roughly 12 o’clock and 1 o’clock rel­a­tive to the Israelis. Al-Dura (father and son) were at roughly 10 o’clock rel­a­tive to Israelis. A con­crete bar­rel was due west to the al-Duras and a con­crete wall was behind them.

The bul­let holes in the wall behind the al-Duras show round holes which would be con­sis­tent to receiv­ing fire from a shooter who was fir­ing at a tar­get at a direc­tion of 12 o’clock. If the bul­let holes were made by Israeli fire, you would expect to see more ellip­ti­cal shaped holes, from fir­ing on a 12 o’clock angle.

Pro­gram High­lights Include: The Israeli government’s unwill­ing­ness to sup­port crit­ics of the offi­cial ver­sion of the al-Dura inci­dent; a let­ter from then French pres­i­dent Jacques Chirac sup­port­ing Ender­lin and France 2; review and dis­cus­sion of other faked inci­dents of sup­posed Israeli atroc­i­ties and war crimes; the French government’s award­ing of the Legion d’Honneur to Ender­lin (that dec­o­ra­tion is the French government’s high­est com­men­da­tion); con­dem­na­tion of Karsenty by promi­nent French media out­lets and promi­nent intellectuals.