Karsenty and the Mohammed Al Dura Affair

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Some iconic images from the Al Dura Affair

Mali Monument	Al Dura Billboard

I attended an interesting presentation in the House of Commons yesterday (27 January 2010) by Philippe Karsenty on the Mohammed Al Dura Affair, a subject on which he has expended much energy since the original incident about a decade ago. Recall that the 12-year-old was apparently shot on 30th September 2000, while sheltering behind his father, as a result of exchanges of fire between Israelis and Palestinians during the Second Intifida.

This incident has become iconic in the Islamic world, with many states issuing postage stamps commemorating it on billboards, naming streets as well as erecting statues, etc. The incident was originally reported by Charles Enderlin, a respected French-Israeli reporter, who was not present at the scene but added the commentary on the basis of footage supplied by his Gazan cameraman, Talal Abu Rahma. It should be noted that Enderlin is a journalist for France 2, the French national TV station.

Karsenty’s exposure of the incident as a staged hoax led to his losing a case in a French court following Enderlin’s writ for libel on December 9, 2004, followed by a writ from France 2 on December 3, 2005. This decision was overturned on May 21, 2008, and an Appeal by France 2 to the French Supreme Court (Court de Cassation) is currently being heard. There is a detailed account of this controversy here, while Ha’aretz has a summary, and there is an excellent account by Camera.

All of this is, of course, well known. But what intrigued me is the seeming reluctance of many Israelis and Israel-sympathizers, and prominent Jews such as Frenchman Jacques Attali, to support Karsenty or pursue the perpetrators of such an obviously staged event. Some light was thrown on this reluctance by Karsenty himself. Given the weakening of US-Israel relations since Obama’s presidency, and the outright anti-Israel hostility of much of Europe, spearheaded by the UK, it seems futile to antagonize the one possible new ally of Sarkozy’s France, which has just awarded Enderlin the Legion d’Honneur.

Makes sense!

The Dog That Didn’t Bark

In Conan Doyle's story "Silver Blaze", Sherlock Holmes has this exchange at the crime scene with Gregory, the Scotland Yard inspector:

Gregory : "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"
Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."
Gregory: "The dog did nothing in the night-time."
Holmes: "That was the curious incident."

On Friday 8th January, there occurred riots between Palestinians, the British-led Viva Palestina group, and the Egyptian police at the Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza. One Egyptian was killed, with several others injured. Ahmed Abul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, said in remarks published on Saturday, that members of Viva Palestina, the last convoy allowed through, had "committed hostile acts, even criminal ones" on Egyptian soil. Following this incident, the leader of the Viva Palestina group, British MP George Galloway, was deported from Egypt.

This episode understandably made headlines on most foreign and some British-based news channels. (See Aljazeera's take.) That is, on most TV channels - with the glaring exception of the BBC – for whom it was largely a non-story. One would have thought that the involvement of a British MP in foreign riots, followed by deportation, would have been headlined non-stop throughout several days.

Imagine – if you will – had the riots occurred at one of the Israeli crossing points, involving death and injury, and “peaceful” humanitarian aid workers as well as a British MP…. Questions would have been asked in Parliament, protest marches in the streets, “understandably aggrieved British youth” would have explained that this is the sort of behaviour which leads to suicide bombers, etc. etc. It is not beyond possibility that the United Nations General Assembly would have met.

So the BBC obsession is not with the Middle East – it is with Israel.

The fact that the dog did not bark, now that was the curious incident.

Intelligent profiling

The abysmal failure of US security to prevent a putative suicide bomber from boarding Northwest Airlines international flight 253 on December 25, 2009, highlights the need for intelligent profiling on passenger flights. Note I said "intelligent profiling "; paying particular attention to young males with Islamic-sounding names is not, and never has been, sufficient. The silliest comment I heard in this respect was on today's Radio 4 Today programme, when one contributor stated that particular attention should be paid to holders of Iraqi and Afghanistan passports. These are precisely the passport holders who have never been, and will never be, airline bombers. On the other hand, recall the Irish girl, pregnant by her Palestinian lover, who after profiling, that is, background analysis, was prevented from boarding an El Al plane while carrying both her unborn child and the bomb put in her luggage by her lover.

Once after a scientific visit to the Haifa Technion Chemistry Department, where I was collaborating with a colleague who was actually a physicist, I was stopped by a young female security officer. Officer:"What were you doing in Israel?"Me: "Visiting the Chemistry Department of the Technion."Officer: "Prove it."As it so happens I had to hand a preprint of a paper we had just produced on the subject of SU(2) - a technical subject in mathematical physics. I proudly produced the same.Officer: "SU(2) - that's theoetical physics, NOT chemistry!"
At this point I was so flabbergasted that I had to admit that it was a fair cop, guv. Further explanations were necessary. (The girl happened to be an ex-student of my old professor, the celebrated Israeli physicist, Yuval Ne'eman.)

Now that is what I call "intelligent profiling".