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Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Reports from today's court session are beginning to come in.

Melanie Phillips at The Spectator: The al Durah blood libel

...the judge ordered France 2 to produce the unscreened footage of this incident; today it did so.

Well, sort of. What it actually produced was 18 minutes out of the 27 it was required to bring forward. From this footage, which according to France 2’s Palestinian cameraman was filmed during an implausible 45 minutes of continuous shooting by Israeli soldiers, there is no evidence that anyone at all was killed or injured -- including Mohammed al Durah who by the end of the frames in which he figured seemed to be still very much alive and unmarked by any wound whatsoever.

The drama of today’s hearing was enhanced by the appearance of Enderlin himself, who until today had not graced this case with his presence. As the film was shown to a packed and overheated (in every sense) courtroom, Enderlin and Karsenty offered rival interpretations of the images on the screen. If Enderlin thought he would thus demonstrate the inadequacy of Karsenty’s case, he was very much mistaken. On the contrary, parts of his commentary were so absurd that the courtroom several times burst into incredulous laughter.

Enderlin offered only a vague, rambling and unconvincing explanation of why he had only produced 18 minutes of footage rather than the 27 he claimed to have received from his cameraman in Gaza (Enderlin himself was not in Gaza when these events occurred). After the hearing Professor Richard Landes, one of the people who had already seen the contested footage, said that two scenes had been cut out which clearly showed that the violence had been staged -- including one in which a Palestinian preparing to throw a missile is suddenly picked up and carried into an ambulance despite showing no signs of injury. This scene, said Landes, was filmed by Reuters, who actually filmed the France 2 cameraman filming it. Yet there was no sign of it today...

Phillips' post is a must-read.

More: Breath of the Beast: Outrage in Paris! The Ghost of Rose Mary Woods Stalks the Court Room

Richard Landes had Thoughts before the Court Viewing of the France2 Rushes which contains lots of good lead-up info. I'm sure he'll have a lot to say later when he's had a chance to write.

Also (pre-hearing): CAMERA: Charles Enderlin Backtracks Again: The Al Dura Scandal Continues

...Enderlin might not remember where the 27 minutes came from, but we can remind him. His cameraman in whom he claimed to have "full confidence" testified to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights that he had "spent approximately 27 minutes photographing the incident which took place for 45 minutes.": And the three French journalists who were invited by France 2 to view the footage, Luc Rosenzwieg, Denis Jeambar and Daniel Leconte, reported that "In the 24 minutes of film preceding the footage of Al Dura, young Palestinians are performing for the television cameras. They fall and when they think that no one is around, they get up."...

Update: Honest Reporting had someone in the courtroom as well. Good stuff here: Dura Discredited. A snip:

...After the hearing ended, how did people react to what they saw?

Not one person believed that the version of France 2 was right. Some people maintained that the footage was staged. Others think the footage was real. Clearly, nobody believed that anybody died.

Does the footage vindicate Karsenty?

Everyone was going, "Wow" and talking about whether he'll take action against France 2 for trying to swindle the court. He can wait for the verdict, or sue France 2 for tampering with the tape. He has quite a few options. Clearly, the judge wasn't convinced by France 2's version. The judge's verdict is to be given on February 27.

How did the France 2 people react after the hearing?

France 2 left immediately. They just ran out and left. They didn't want to speak to anyone.

Some people were concerned that reviving the footage would harm Israel's image.

There's absolutely no reason to be concerned for that now...

Update: Richard Landes has his first post-court entry up, discussing some of the missing footage: Gambling with a Lie: Enderlin pulls a Rosemary Woods

Honest Reporting is posting video interviews of courtroom observers' reactions.

2 Comments

You can be 100% certain that if those missing nine minutes were either irrelevant or harmful to Israel, Enderlin would have not hesitated to show them. The only logical conclusion is that there is something there that he doesn't want the public to see.

BHG

Honest Reporting has a video of reactions to the film shown in the French court today. Phillipe Karsenty and Richard Landes are two of the people interviewed. It's on their home page and on YouTube.

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