Charles Enderlin

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Charles Enderlin is a French journalist, specializing in the Middle East and Israel. He is one of the prominent actors in the Muhammad al-Durrah affair and the ensuing controversy about freedom of speech in France. An expert on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, he is the author of several books on the subject, including Shattered Dreams: The Failure of the Peace Process in the Middle East, 1995-2002.

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[edit] Biography

Charles Enderlin was born in Paris in 1945, and grew up in Metz with his divorced mother, his sister and his grandparents, a family of Austrian Jews who moved to France after Anschluss. He studied medicine in Nancy, before leaving for Israel in December 1968 at the age of 22 to live on a kibbutz.

In 1971, he became a journalist with an Israeli radio station. Two years later, he became correspondent of RMC, and the next year, senior editor at the news department of Kol Israel. At the beginning of the 1970s, he acquired Israeli citizenship.

In 1981, he became a correspondent with the French television channel Antenne 2, acquiring the title of grand reporter in 1988 ("grand reporter" is a senior title in the French media). Three years later, he became chief of the Israel bureau of France 2, the new name of Antenne 2. As of 2005, he was also vice-president of the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in Jerusalem.

He became an expert on the political and diplomatic process of normalization between Israel and the Palestinian Authority [1], which helped him write an overview of the negotiations in 1997, published as Paix ou guerre, les secrets des négociations israélo-arabes 1917-1997 (Peace or War, the Secrets of Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations, 1917 - 1997).

[edit] Muhammad al-Durrah controversy

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Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.

In autumn 2000, pictures of the young Muhammad al-Durrah, shot dead during a firefight between the Israel Defense Force (IDF) and Palestinian activists, appeared on French television. In Enderlin's commentary on the images (which had been taken by Talal Abu Rahma, a Palestinian cameraman on Enderlin's team) Enderlin stated that al-Durrah had been killed by the Israeli troops, and he became the target of a "campaign of harassment"[2].

The IDF initially declared it was probably responsible for al-Durrah's death, but a comprehensive IDF investigation released November 27, 2000 reached different conclusions, stating "A comprehensive investigation conducted in the last weeks casts serious doubt that the boy was hit by Israeli fire. It is quite plausible that the boy was hit by Palestinian bullets in the course of the exchange of fire that took place in the area." Later investigations by others came to similar conclusions.

These investigations, and several emerging facts, raised further questions about Enderlin's commentary on the images. The film was about 27 minute long, of which only about 55 seconds were made public (about three minutes and 26 seconds were later released to the Israeli army). Asked why only this short portion was shown, Enderlin told the French monthly Télérama, in October 2000: "I cut the child's death throes. It was too unbearable". However, in late 2004 Enderlin told Télérama magazine that there had been a "misunderstanding," that he had meant to use the word "agony" to describe the scene of the shooting of Mohammed al-Durra.[3]

In October 2004, journalists Denis Jeambar, Daniel Leconte and Luc Rosenzweig (a former chief editor of Le Monde and currently a Metula News Agency contributor) met with Arlette Chabot of France 2 to review the complete film. After the viewing, on October 22, 2004, the Metula News Agency repeated earlier claims that the incident had been staged.[4][5]

On January 25, 2005, in Le Figaro,[6] [7] Jeambar and Leconte (like Rosenzweig) refuted Enderlin's longstanding explanation of why the footage of the killing was brief and apparently truncated, stating that the "unbearable" images of al-Durrah's "death throes" did not exist. Instead they noted that in the 27 minutes of tape "Palestinians seem to be organizing a staged event. They 'play' at war with the Israelis and simulate, in most of the cases, imaginary injuries."[8][9] However, Jeambar and Leconte indicated that, although questions were indeed raised as to why Enderlin accused the Israeli Army of shooting the boy, and spoke of images showing his agony, the film produced by France 2 did not allow one to conclude that the death of the boy was faked. They repeated these statements in later interviews on radio,[10] and with the Cybercast News Service (CNS). [11]

In an January 27, 2005 article in Le Figaro, Enderlin responded to Jeambar and Leconte's charges. He insisted that he stated that the bullets were fired by the Israelis for a number of reasons: First, that he trusted the cameraman (Abu Rhama) who, he said, had made the initial claim during the broadcast, and had worked France 2 for 17 years, and later had it confirmed by other journalists and sources, and the initial Israeli statements. Second, that the IDF never asked his team to collaborate on an inquiry, even though they had written to the IDF spokesman proposing they do so. Third, that the idea of the IDF shooting al-Durrah corresponded with what Enderlin saw as "the reality of the situation not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank", where, he claimed, in the first month of the Intifada the IDF had already shot around one million bullets, and killed 118 Palestinians, included 33 children, as compared to the 11 Israelis killed. Finally, he stated that a journalist need not take note of "possibly dishonest" later actions by "extremist groups", and accused Jeambar and Leconte of promoting "censorship".[12] Leconte's vehement reply was "I find this, from a journalistic point of view, hallucinating. That a journalist like him (Enderlin) can be driven to say such things is very revealing of the state of the press in France today".[13]

On October 20, 2006, Enderlin and France 2 won a libel case against Philippe Karsenty, the director of French website Media-Ratings[14]. Media-Ratings had published accusations, first made by the French-language Israeli Metula News Agency[15], that Enderlin had staged the Muhammed al-Durrah killing for his report. The prosecutor had recommended that the court rule in favor of Karsenty, in light of the evidence he had provided, but the court ruled against him. Enderlin and France 2 were awarded symbolic damages of one euro each, and Karsenty was also ordered to pay a small fine and court costs. Karsenty intends to appeal, saying, "It is a very somber day for France. The French justice system has validated a false report."[16]

On November 28, 2006, a case by Enderlin and France 2 against Pierre Lurçat was thrown out of court, on the grounds that they had not provided enough proof that Lurçat was the director of the website Ligue de Défense Juive[17], which had published a text calling for a public demonstration on October2, 2002 before the offices of France 2[18], at which Enderlin and France 2 were awarded the Goebbels Disinformation Prize.[1][2]

[edit] Quotes

  • "When a press correspondent starts working while thinking about the reactions which will be induced by his information, he is dead meat."
  • "If my editor-in-chief decided that such or such subject should be filmed differently because of such or such possible reaction, I would face a major problem. This never occurred".
  • In Israel, words will trap you from the first moment. As soon as you talk about Cisjordania or Judea-Samaria, according to whether you say "Occupied Territories" or "Territories" only, you will automatically be classified as pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli. It is complicated, perhaps impossible, to escape it. I try using the UN formulation. You have to be distant, forget who you are."

[edit] Books

  • Shattered Dreams: The Failure of the Peace Process in the Middle East, 1995-2002 ISBN 1-59051-060-7 (2002)
(Le Rêve brisé : Histoire de l'échec du processus de paix au Proche-Orient (1995-2002))
  • 1997: Paix ou guerre,les secrets des négociations israélo-arabes 1917 -1997 (éd.Stock)
  • Shamir, une biographie (1991)

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ "France 2 Loses The Second al-Dura Trial", Pajamas Media, 28 November 2006
  2. ^ "Affaire Al Dura: France 2 et Enderlin Deboutes", Guysen Israel News, 29 November 2006 (on Ligue de Défense Juive website)
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