Pallywood Hijinks: Missing footage in Mohamed Al-Dura Film

According to this report, several minutes of footage were missing from the footage shown in court by France 2 which was filmed when 12 year old Mohamed Al Dura was supposedly killed by Israeli soldiers. Charles Enderlin of France 2 claims the film shows an authentic event. Al-Dura's death, as shown by France-2, was used to motivate Palestinian violence in the Intifada that began in 2000, However, Phillip Karsenty and others claimed that the film was heavily edited and that there is evidence that Al-Dura was alive at the end. It is not clear from the film who was shooting at him. Karsenty got a court order forcing France-2 to show the film in court. As one might anticipate, several minutes of the film were mysteriously missing.

 

From the report:

 

 

What did the raw footage show?

 

We can definitely say that nobody can say who was shooting at who. Charles Enderlin said in court that the Palestinians started shooting first, but in the end, there's no way we can say what happened that day. You can't tell who did what. The assertion from Charles Enderlin, that the Israeli army killed the boy, is totally wrong. The least he could've said was that the boy was killed--but we don't know by who.

 

There was a dispute over how much footage was to be screened. Was the full video shown?

 

Charles Enderlin submitted 18 minutes of footage. The judge, without any prompting from Philippe's lawyers, asked what happened to the 27 minutes. Enderlin said on record in court that he had to manipulate some footage that was not relevant to that day. He said he transferred the footage onto DVD for the court. That was amazing.

 

So she asked if anyone in attendance had seen the full footage. Luc Rosenzweig was there, stood up , and said he saw a tape that was more than 20 minutes long. Richard Landes also stood up. He saw the footage at Enderlin's office. He said the timer he saw was at least 21 minutes long. The judge basically let that issue rest, but there was serious doubt hanging over the room that the footage was tampered or doctored.

It is too early to know what will be the outcome of the hearing. It is difficult to understand why the court did not demand the original film. The report claims "Dura Discredited," but that is not necessarily the case.

 

Ami Isseroff