Wednesday, May 21, 2008

The Al-Dura Case - Karsenty Not Guilty Of Libel



You'll remember the controversy surrounding Mohamed Al-Dura, undoubtedly the most successful PallyWood production to date, where the footage shot for France 2 public television by a Palestinian stringer showing a frightened Palestinian boy supposedly shot down in a cross fire by the IDF was broadcast all over the world and made into posters and tee shirts as primary marketing tool to use against the 'Zionists'.

The IDF reflexively ( and stupidly, if you ask me) apologized for the boy's death, and only belatedly conducted a conclusive investigation that showed that it was physically impossible due to the angle of fire and the physical location of al-Dura and his father for the IDF to have shot him.

French media Figure Phillipe Karsenty has alleged publicly for a long time that this was a deliberate fraud, aided and abetted by France 2 and broadcaster Charles Enderlin, and was sucessfully sued for libel over it.

That verdict has been reversed today on appeal and the suit, brought before the French Appeals court has been dismissed.

According to French law, to have a judgment for libel dismissed you need to prove the truth of your statements or that enough reasonable doubt exists that your allegations could be factual.

Israel Matsav, Ed Lasky at American Thinker , Haviv Rettig at the Jerusalem Post and Phyliss Chessler with an interview of Karsenty have more on this story.

I'm glad the truth of this has finally come out for the general public, and Karsenty must be intensely gratified to have stood up for the truth and been vindicated. I congratulate him and the others who shone the light of truth on this obscene fraud.

In the end, though...well, I just hope it matters in some way.

The tee shirts and poster have already been sold, the image has been marketed and the myth created, just as it was with Rachel Corrie and the supposed 'massacres' at Jenin and Gaza.

No matter how often the Palestinians are exposed as outright liars and no matter how often their apologists in the dinosaur media are caught deliberately slanting the news and shilling for them, the truth and the retractions (if any)come far too late to destroy the myth.

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