Charles Enderlin Backtracks Again: The Al Dura Scandal Continues

Updated: Only 18 minutes of film shown. Two staged scenes have been cut. Al Dura is still clearly alive at the end of the film.

Today — November 14 — the public will finally be able to view the 27 minutes of raw footage of the death of Mohammed Al Dura and determine whether or not it was a fake. Or will they?

The image of Mohammed Al Dura , the 12-year-old Palestinian boy seen crouched in terror behind his father as he allegedly became the fatal victim of Israeli bullets in September 2000, has become the icon of Palestinian “martyrdom,” fueling anti-Israel hatred and violence in the Arab world. But questions have been raised about the authenticity of this image which was filmed by France 2’s Palestinian cameraman with voice-over by Charles Enderlin, its Jerusalem correspondent. Even though less than a minute of edited film was shown on the French public TV network and the death was not seen, Enderlin reported that Al Dura was killed by Israeli bullets. He claimed the rest of the 27 minutes of footage was cut because it showed the child’s “death throes.”

France 2 refused to hand over the original film but a court order last month by the French court of appeals forces the station to turn over the 27 minutes of raw footage—which actually consists of staged scenes of Palestinians pretending to be shot, according to the few journalists who previously saw it— to be viewed in court at a public hearing.

But just when we thought the truth would finally be revealed, France 2 is backtracking again. Enderlin now is telling Jerusalem Post, there were never 27 minutes of raw footage:

“I do not know where this 27 minutes comes from,” he said. “In all, there were only 18 minutes of footage shot in Gaza.”

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. ”

For more details, see Anatomy of a French Media Scandal and stay tuned for updates!

Updated: Only 18 minutes of tape were shown in court, none of which showed Al Dura being killed. In fact, he is alive at the end of the tape without any sign of having been wounded. Witnesses who have previously seen over 20 minutes of raw footage say that two obviously staged scenes were cut.

More journalists are convinced the entire episode was staged.