A possible hoax

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In the seven years since the start of the Palestinian intifada, perhaps no incident has inspired more Western criticism of Israel, nor generated as much terrorism against the Jewish state, than the supposed cold-blooded murder of 12-year-old Mohammed al-Durra on Sept. 30, 2000.

The video of a terrified Mohammed taking refuge behind his father before being shot and killed generated a firestorm of Western criticism, and the Israeli public was just as outraged. Palestinians, meanwhile, used the apparent murder as a rallying cry for murderous riots and terrorism.

But that video was released before the ascendancy of the blogosphere, back when the mainstream media rarely challenged stories aired by other outlets.

As it turns out, the video doesn't hold up well under scrutiny. Even the people who shot and aired it, the France 2 television network, backed off their original claims that Israeli soldiers were responsible for killing the boy.

But what if Mohammed Al-Durra never even died? What if the entire scene was staged in order to generate precisely the reaction it did?

That was the allegation made by Frenchman Philippe Karsenty — and today he has an appeal of a verdict last year that found him liable for defamation against France 2 and reporter Charles Enderlin.

Unfortunately for Mr. Karsenty, French law is stacked against him. The judge explicitly rejected at least one key claim made by Enderlin, and he did not endorse as true the entire contents of the original report — including the claim that the Israeli military killed the boy. Unlike in an American defamation case, however, a tie does not go to the defendant in France.

And not only did Mr. Karsenty bear the burden of proving the truth of what he had written, but he had to do so without the one thing that might well hold the story of what really happened: the 27 minutes of "rushes" taken at the scene that day by France 2 cameraman Tala Abu Ramah.

In the hopes of deflating the budding controversy, France 2 allowed three of its harshest critics — though not Mr. Karsenty —to view the "rushes." The result was that two of them continue to criticize the network and Mr. Enderlin, but now believe that Mohammed Al-Durra did, in fact, die.

The third person present at that screening, however, Luc Rosenzweig, former editor in chief of Le Monde, under questioning from the court answered "the theory of the set up [of Mohammed's death] has a greater probability of being true than the version presented by France 2," according to the trial-court judge's written opinion.