07/08/08

The Canadian Jewish News  

After successfully defending a defamation case brought by one of France’s premier television networks, Philippe Karsenty is going on the offensive.

Karsenty, who runs an online media watchdog organization, has launched two suits against some of France’s most prominent news outlets, alleging they have libelled him by comparing him to a “nut case.”

The first suit names Canal+, a pay TV company owned by Vivendi SA, and alleges the network aired a documentary “depicting me as a manipulative liar. They said I was the same as those who say 9/11 was an inside job.”

The second suit charges L’Express, a weekly magazine, with running an article that described him as a ”obsessive nut case and manipulative,” Karsenty said.

“We defended against the al-Dura lie. Now it’s time to go on the offensive and get the French media to pay the price for supporting an anti-Semitic lie,” Karsenty said in a telephone interview from Paris.

Karsenty, a financial consultant who operates Media Ratings (www.m-r.fr), won a historic legal victory in May when a French court dismissed a charge of defamation against him. Karsenty had repeatedly asserted that France2, which has been dubbed “a flagship and establishment channel,” aired a news report in September 2000 that was a hoax and an anti-Semitic lie. The TV report claimed Israeli soldiers shot 12-year-old Mohammad al-Dura while he and his father crouched behind a concrete barrel at the Netzarim junction in Gaza. Karsenty questioned whether al-Dura was shot at all and said the false report had vilified Israel and led to attacks against Jews. Al-Dura, moreover, became an international symbol of Israeli ruthlessness and the boy’s poster was visible behind Daniel Pearl when the American Jewish journalist was murdered by al-Qaeda.

Karsenty was sued by Charles Enderlin, France2’s Jerusalem correspondent, who broadcast the report based on footage and information supplied by a Palestinian stringer, Talal Abu Rahma. Karsenty lost at trial but was vindicated on appeal when a French court ruled his claims were a legitimate criticism of the network and its reporter. Most revealing was that footage shown in court showed Palestinians at Netzarim faking injuries. U.S. Prof. Richard Landes, who had monitored the case, dubbed the news manipulation, “Pallywood.”

Karsenty said the French media have lined up behind Enderlin, who they want to protect as a fellow member of France’s intellectual establishment. A petition has been launched in Le Nouvel Observateur that supports Enderlin and paints him as some sort of victim, Karsenty said. The petition supports Enderlin’s integrity and states, “Seven years. For seven years a despicable campaign of hate has been trying to stain the professional honour of Charles Enderlin. For seven years, there have been those who have tried to present as ‘fabricated’ and as a ’staged scene’ his report that shows how a 12-year-old boy was killed by shots fired from an Israeli position.”

Karsenty said supporters of the petition are “personalities who are worried by the fact I was not found guilty. They say there is no right to defame and the justice system is allowing me to defame him. That’s not true. The judge found there was no defamation.”

And despite the prominence of the signatories, who include Hubert Vardin, former French Foreign Minister, and Theo Klein, former president of CRIF, the major French Jewish organization, 19 of the first 20 comments posted at the paper supported him, Karsenty stated.

“The French people aware of the case are on board with me,” he said. “I’m not talking about most of the journalists, the anti-Semitic politicians and the so-called French intellectuals.”

“The French media lied about the fact we won the case,” he said. “The French media are all complicit in this kind of behaviour – anti-Zionism, anti-Israel, which leads to anti-Semitism.

“France is still the most anti-Semitic country in the Western world and it is very annoying to see that even when we can prove they were manipulating, they’d rather lie and cover up the mistake of their colleague than tell the truth.”

Karsenty was also critical of French President Nicolas Sarkozy who has authority to act against France2, which is a state-owned enterprise. The CRIF announced it is asking for a commission of inquiry into the entire affair but Sarkozy has not yet responded, Karsenty said. He speculated that Sarkozy’s advisers are misleading him about the al-Dura affair. “His mistake is that he took the former advisors of Jacques Chirac. That tells you a lot. Chirac was so anti-Israel, anti-Western world, so the policy can’t change.”

Karsenty was also critical of the Israeli government, which “is not taking advantage of this huge victory. It’s time for them to take advantage” by demonstrating that the public had been duped about the news in Israel and that the country had been defamed.

Paul Lungen

© The Canadian Jewish News