Israel Matzav

Karsenty goes on the offensive

Phillipe Karsenty, the French media critic, who successfully defended a defamation suit after he accused French television network France 2 and its Jerusalem correspondent Charles Enderlin of broadcasting a hoax and an anti-Semitic lie that claimed that the IDF had killed 12-year old 'Palestinian' Muhamed al-Dura, has now gone on the offensive. Karsenty has sued for libel two media outlets that he alleges defamed him (Hat Tip: NY Nana). The al-Dura hoax sparked vicious anti-Semitic propaganda like the picture at the top of this post.

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.

Meanwhile, French 'culture' - the same 'culture' whose ambassador to London once referred to Israel as "that s***y little country," has rushed in to defend the politically correct Enderlin.

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.”

I'm sure you're all shocked - just shocked - by the behavior Karsenty is describing. I hope he wins millions in damages from these creeps.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:36 AM