Wednesday, September 19, 2007
The appeals court judge in Paris ordered France 2 TV to show the court about 25 minutes of raw video footage shot on Sept. 30, 2000 at the Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip, when the 12-year-old Palestinian boy apparently was shot and killed in an exchange of gunfire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants.
Al-Dura's shooting death became an instant icon for Palestinian suffering at the hands of Israeli brutality, but the Israeli army, after initially apologizing for the death, concluded after an investigation that the boy could not possibly have been hit by Israeli bullets.
When Philippe Karsenty, director of the media watchdog group Media-Ratings, called France 2's exclusive video of the incident "a hoax," he was found guilty of slander. He appealed the decision, and on Wednesday the appeals judge ordered that the video be released. Karsenty called the court's decision a victory. "This is only the first step in a victory," his lawyer, Marc Levy, corrected him.
France 2, whose cameraman in Gaza, Talal Abu Rahma, shot the exclusive footage that was considered a major scoop at the time, was given until Nov. 14 to hand over the video to the court.
Several French and U.S. journalists who have seen the raw footage have indicated the shooting might have been staged by Palestinians.
A decision on Karsenty's case is expected in February.
Big h/t to Augean Stables. Richard has a round up of Al Dura background here, a copy of his statement to the French court, here, and a copy of the IDF's request for the tape, here.
Finally, Carl in Jerusalem has a good post here. According the Nidra Poller's report at PJM, "The next hearing is scheduled on November 14th… to view the raw footage."
Wow!!! I never expected that! What excellent news!
FrAWNce = Broken Clock (Twice a day).
check out ynet. he has detaisl wrong, but i'll correct them shortly at my blog. thanks to solomonia for following this from the very beginning and getting me into blogging. this is a huge victory for the internet -- see "Blow by blow of the court's decision.
Very cool, very, very cool, and heartening. Congratulations Richard. It won't be news to many here but Melanie Phillips has a nice encapsulation here and has a few other posts on the topic as well. With all the lousy news, including news about lousy news people and lousy news organizations (whether France 2 and Enderlin or stateside), it's genuinely heartening to see a victory like this.
Now, will major news organizations and programs provide proper analysis and broadcasts of this? Or will they tend to let it slip and/or marginalize it?
Is Enderlin a moron? Sure looks it:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3451821,00.html
Reacting to Wednesday's court ruling Enderlin told Ynetnews he welcomed the decision. "I am very happy about this decision. From the start, our position has been that we will not release raw footage except through a judicial process. We will not release the footage to militants or private individuals," he said.
"I'm very happy that it will be seen in court. I hope that this is the end of a smear campaign which has gone on for seven years, and which has been difficult for me and my family," he added.
"People have accused us of staging an event which is an absolute lie. I am very happy at last to have the possibility (to show it)," Enderlin said.
Does he realize he makes no sense whatsoever and that he contradicts himself? There are so many things wrong with these statements that I don't know where to begin.
Excellent job by Richard, Philippe, Nidra & Co.
Enderlin is no moron; he is however an evil shite. I don't use the term liberally, to the contrary it needs to be used very sparingly, but Enderlin is an evil shite, a moral mephitic, and promulgator of same. If softer language is used by others, so be it, but regardles of the languagge used underlying comprehensions need to come to terms with what Enderlin, France 2 and others have implicated themselves in.