Ref: 69/2013
Date: 27 June 2013
Time: 11:18 GMT
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) greatly welcomes the decision of the Paris Court of Appeal, issued on Wednesday 26 June 2013, which convicted Philippe Karsenty, a French journalist, of defamation of the French national television channel France 2, and fined him €7,000 Euros. PCHR asserts that this ruling is a moral, legal and humanitarian victory, especially after Israel and its allies tried to deny its responsibility by all means and methods of manipulation, including the targeting of France 2 and its correspondent in Gaza. PCHR also asserts that the court’s decision is a victory for truth and Palestinian victims in the face of the continued attempts to discredit and forge the facts, and mislead the public opinion by Israel.
Karsenty had issued a report in 2004 accusing France 2 of falsely depicting the death of Mohammed al-Dura in 2000. This report completely denied the killing of al-Dura and claimied that there is no evidence that such an incident took place. These allegations were supported by official government bodies in Israel and Israeli and international media in a vulgar and despicable manner in order to deny the killing of Mohammed al-Dura, which was one of the prime motives for the outbreak of al-Aqsa Intifada.
The Court’s decision on the killing of al-Dura restores the faith and trust in the French judiciary and its role as guardian of justice, the rule of law and redress for victims, particularly in such cases which have been in the center of legal and media conflicts in relation to the Palestinian cause in the past 10 years. For the past decade, PCHR has closely followed the updates and course of the case, especially since PCHR compiled the complete legal documentation related to the case, including the affidavit of Talal Abu-Rahma, photographer for France 2, who witnessed and filmed the incident.
Furthermore, PCHR notes that even though it has the complete legal file on the incident of the Mohammed al-Dura killing, the organisation has not been called to appear before the court to display the facts related to the case, for example, but not limited to, the killing of the ambulance driver, Bassam al-Belbeysy, who tried to rescue al-Dura, and the affidavits of two other media workers who were present at the scene and witnessed the killing of al-Dura.
The attempts to deny the killing of Mohammed al-Dura by Israeli forces, in spite of local and international media and human rights organizations’ documentation of this horrifying crime, comes in the context of continued Israeli attempts to deny its crimes against Palestinian civilians, and discredit evidence which prove that war crimes have been committed against Palestinian civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).
In this regard, Israeli forces 12 years after the incident, which took place in September 2000, formed an official investigation committee in September 2012. The investigation is called the “Israeli Government Review Committee,” at the instructions of Israeli Prime Minister as a proactive step to disrupt the court’s decision. The committee’s report, issued on 19 May 2013, reached the following conclusions: “There is no evidence that Mohammed or his father, Jamal, were wounded in the incident; the two were not struck by bullets at all; and the Israeli forces bear no responsibility for the incident.”
PCHR refuted, at the time, the report of the Israeli Government Review Committee, pointing out that this examination, and previous investigations into the matter, conducted by the Israeli authorities failed to meet international standards of independence, impartiality, transparency, promptness, and effectiveness. PCHR also confirmed that it carried out an extensive investigation of the incident after it occurred, the findings of which completely contradict the assertions of the Israeli report. As part of its investigations, PCHR’s lawyers collected affidavits from the following persons: 1. Mr. Talal Hassan Abu Rahma, a photographer for France 2 television who witnessed the incident; 2. Mr. Ma’ali Suleiman Hussain Selmi, head of the reception department at Shifa hospital in Gaza City; and
As part of the eyewitness testimonies, Abu Rahma, who was present during the incident, stated that the Israeli forces fired intensively and intermittently at Mohammed and Jamal. The victims were then evacuated to Shifa hospital by ambulance, where Mohammed was pronounced dead on arrival. Another eyewitness, Al-Louh also stated that, while tending to a number of injured persons, he himself was injured by a rubber coated metal bullet in his right leg, and shortly after that he was injured when a live bullet grazed the top of his head.
In the light of the above, PCHR:
