Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, May 8, 2019
In 2004, Philippe Karsenty, a French Jew of Moroccan descent, took a break from his work as a stockbroker to self-fund a 10-year venture challenging France 2 Television for what he believed was one of the worse blood libels in modern history. Proponents regarded him as a David fighting Goliath, while his detractors viewed him as a conspiracy theorist.
The case in question is that of Muhammed al-Dura, a major flashpoint at the start of the Second Intifada, which saw an estimated 1,000 Israeli and 3,000 Palestinian lives lost. In 2000, France 2 aired footage that showed 12-year-old al-Dura dying in the arms of his father, allegedly the victim of Israel Defense Forces bullets. At various judicial levels, Karsenty sought to prove, based on an original German investigation, that the act was staged. Karsenty won in France’s appellate court, then a higher court overturned the verdict. He was fined 11,000 Euros for defamation.
While Karsenty made a splash in the media and Israel-advocacy worlds, this small victory, (despite the ultimate trial loss), of raising awareness about alleged French media bias has not fundamentally transformed French media culture toward more balance when reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Karsenty believes this serves as incitement against Israel and, by extension, Jews.
“If there is no political counterweight and willingness to tell the truth about Israel in the media, it’s a declining community,” Karsenty said at a Parisian café near the Arc de Triomphe.
Read the rest in jewishjournal.com