Three Jewish Youths Assaulted in Lyon Suburbs

The AFP reports

Three Jewish youths, aged 16 to 18 years, were kicked and punched Sunday night in the streets of Villeurbanne (Rhône) by a group of young persons of whom four have been detained, police sources said on Monday. Two of the victims will be unable to return to work for six days, according to a press release from the local police station. The police were able to intervene very quickly. The four [ "alleged" ?— D.] assailants are under observation at Villeurbanne police headquarters. Three of them are minors, according the same source. According to the local police station, "the victims had also been the victims of a similar assault several days earlier." According to the Representative Council of France's Jewish Institutions' (Crif) regional office in Rhône-Alpes, one of the victims was wearing a Kippa and a second wore a baseball cap with a Hebrew inscription on it. The aggressors were youths of Maghreban appearance, also according to Crif. Crif Rhône-Alpes president Marcel Amsallem told the AFP that the three youths had been attacked "because one of them wore a kippa, because they were Jews." One received blows to the ribs and in the mouth, the second, to the temples and the base of the skull and the third, in the cheek, according to Crif. The victims do not recall hearing insults of an anti-Semitic nature spoken during the assault. But, according to Crif, the mother of one of the assailants, interviewed in front of her home shortly after the assault, reportedly used the expression, "Dirty Jew." One of the victims of the assault also reportedly recognized in the group two or three youths who were involved in a brawl outside a Villeurbanne high school that occurred on May 13 during which anti-Jewish insults were heard, according to the same source.

Hatred, Low Humor, and High Culture

Sure, this kind of hatred is found in every part of the world, but it’s only in certain places where it’s done with such enthusiasm and élan, and with such care taken to spelling and the details that are as Nazi-like as possible:

The desecration in a Strasbourg cemetery came as Jews marked the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz death camp, a symbol of the Holocaust, when the Nazis killed millions.

France's main Jewish organization, CRIF, said at least 18 tombstones at the Cronenbourg cemetery were found Wednesday marked with swastikas and 13 of them were overturned.

The CRIF's Marc Knobel said the inscription "juden raus" (Jews out) was found on one tomb.

Not sounding the least like it was done by immigrants or descendants thereof, it comes as somewhat of a surprise since it took place in Strasbourg, a city that has an odd historical relationship with religious minorities.

Odd, because this is the sort of history hardly a soul in Europe likes to recall. They prefer to scream about Americans, using examples as strange as Christopher Columbus, killing Native Americans. The origin or place of birth of these Americans is rarely thought about.

While Strasbourg is in present day France, it’s changed hands over and over. Family and place names speak to a majority German heritage with a French and Francofilic elite. Prior to the Nazis taking power in Germany, religious minorities in the area, including Alsace’s Jews, were under the greatest pressure when the Germans were not in charge, only getting some relief from the iron fist of one of Napoleon’s dictats.

We also find the puzzle of European culture in this as well. Over millennia in the Rhein river valley, which has a rather unique cultural outlook distinct from both of its’ neighbors, yet sides somehow are still taken to the extent that while language ghettos of a German variant in France, and French variant on the German side, not speaking your neighbors’ language is more the rule than the exception. Even to this day, one finds French fluency among young Germans (told as they are that it aids one in work, and is culturally appropriate), but hardly a soul across the river who made any effort to learn German. On two occasions, German and French persons discovered that their humble interlocutor and translator happened to be a Yanqui, also called an Ami.

Even the signs found in the main train station, even on the local and regional platforms, are not customized to the extent that they vary from the pattern of French first, English below in smaller type, and German blow that in even smaller type.

Regardless of how much one ‘celebrates diversity’ in that kind of place, the objects of an ugly mentality’s fixation remain an enemy in a sort of cold war of atmospheric cultural factionalism. It ranges from learned hate to miserable grumbling and self-pity, and it’s all very traditional – maybe even their version of the place ‘The Waltons’ keeps in US culture. So to find ‘Juden Raus’ graffiti on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, one should hardly be surprised.

Postcards from Pétainistan

That’s no exaggeration. There are organized mobs or wastrels seeking strawmen to physically abuse in order to act out there hatred of demonized nations and cultures.

The violent assault of a young Jewish man, Saturday evening in Paris led to a thunderous outrage in the Jewish community at the Elysée and the government. The 17-year-old boy was beaten in public on Saturday around 8 pm Buttes-Chaumont, in the nineteenth arrondissement.

According to the National Office of Vigilance against anti-Semitism (BNVCA), the young man "was attacked with an steel bar by a group of "6 or 7" youths.
Five minors from that district and the Seine-Saint-Denis area were arrested and remanded in custody. The investigation was entrusted to Usit (Support Unit and territorial investigation) of the Metropolitan police nearby.

According to Public Assistance-Hospitals of Paris (AP-HP), the status of the victim is "stable" and his prognosis remains inconclusive.

For his father, interviewed by RTL, the young man was attacked "because he was wearing a kippa and is Jewish." Similarly, for UEJF and CRIF, the anti-Semitic nature of this attack is not in doubt. "The young man of 17 years age was brutally attacked last night, is currently in a coma, was wearing a kippa, and there is no doubt that this is an anti-Semitic act," said Ariel Goldmann , Vice-president of CRIF.

Through its chairman, Raphael Haddad, UEJF said he was "very concerned" by repeated fights in recent weeks between organized gangs, including in the Parc des Buttes Chaumont area.

There is no tangible motive in these attacks other than that of simple, mindless, irrational hatred. That the young man was not a “settler” in Israel should actually buoy the attackers’ world view, but that clearly isn’t the point. To the young attackers with their world view trained into them, the mere existence of something representing their enemy.

Even the comments to the article in Le Figaro reflecting outrage show us what kind of “brave new world” we’re living in. Many of those wanting to discuss this kind of criminality have to first qualify their opinions with a statement making sure that everyone knows that they “aren’t a Zionist”. Nonetheless, I found this one amusing:

Vive la France! Country of human rights and especially of giving lessons that are ignored and comments only on what suits them.

No doubt, we’ll also have comments here from the usual drive-by shooters who think beating a 17 year old into a coma is heroic. It’s rather that these sad and confused would do better not to conflate a teenager walking down the street with the usual “enlightened” lectures about how he’s no different than an Israeli soldier in the West Bank. Were they only to have that same form of moral equivalence used against them, instead of having their free speech rights defended, one might find them worthy of some passing attention.

Inside Job

First there was the infamous fraud Marie L. Now it appears the arson at Jewish social center last week was an inside job:

The alleged perpetrator of an arson that destroyed a Jewish center in Paris in the night of August 21 to 22 has been arrested.

The police have not revealed his name. According to a police source, the man is a Jewish former employee of the center, aged about fifty years.

Pro-Palestinian group CAPJPO (Coordination of Calls of a Just Peace in the Middle East) and the new party Euro-Palestine jointly react with predictable glee on the anti-globalization Web site Bella Ciao:

Jewish Social Center: CRIF, Media and Government Fall Yet Again into the Same Trap

[...] No new details had been published by midday, particularly as regards the motives for this newest specimen of Jewish anti-Semitism. It will be some time before we learn whether the individual arrested was inspired by Marie L. (the fabulator of the RER D who's been watching a little too much TV), by "Phineas" (the man who desecrated a Jewish cemetery when he found that having attacked an Arab with an axe didn't make front page news), or perhaps by Alexandre Moïse, leader of the Zionist Federation of France who was nabbed several months ago for having lodged a complaint for anti-Jewish threats... of which he was himself the author.

[...]

The French government, along with the highly visible support of one of the opposition's highest-ranking members, Paris mayor Delanoë, found a away to add an even greater degree of ignominy in the rue Popincourt matter.

It rolled out the red carpet for the Israeli minister of foreign affairs, Sylvain Shalom, who demanded to come to Paris the moment he learned of the fire in order to pose as the guardian and protector of the interests of French Jews. Shalom distinguished himself by, among other things, criticizing the supposed laxity of French courts in prosecuting the perpetrators of anti-Semitic acts, which constitutes yet another shameless lie.

Like anti-Semitism itself, blackmailing others with accusations of anti-Semitism is a criminal madness, with the aggravating factor that it follows itself a calculating strategy: to prevent the expression of any and all denunciation of the acts of the Israeli government in occupied Palestine.

In addition to the arsonist of the rue Popincourt, let's hope that all those, from the French pro-Israeli institutions (CRIF, LICRA, etc.) to political class and including the sheep-like media, who have created an environment favorable for such acts, shall one day have to explain themselves.

War & Peace: USA Supporter Says It Is Nuts for French Media to Present Trump as "Reeling" and "Desperate" While Iranian Leaders Are Described as "Celebrating"

Twice last week, Philippe Karsenty was invited to discuss the Iran war on BFMTV (click for video) where he suggested that it is bonkers for France's mainstream media to suggest that simply because he was no longer issuing an ultimatum to Tehran, President Donald Trump was "reeling" in the conflict with the Ayatollahs. Another subject for discussion was Lebanon, where a French soldier was seriously wounded and by the time he had been shipped back to France, he had died.  

BFM TV - 22 avril 2026 - Trump temporise - Analyse de la situation au Liban

The previous night, the spokesman for le Comité Trump France had been on BFMTV (click for video) where he pointed out that it is bonkers to refer to the Iranians as celebrating as they observe Trump as being allegedly "erratic and desperate": "We don't even know what the Iranians [those who are still alive!] are saying to each other."

This week, Philippe Karsenty also headed to RCN on Wednesday where he was the guest of André BARMO'HA with whom he discussed the the Al-Durah hoax, which has been bedeviling the Muslim world (not to mention the entire planet!) for 26 years… Among the things the spokesman for le Comité Trump France revealed was a stunning bombshell: in order not to embarrass the French government during a recent official event, the Conseil Représentatif des Institutions juives de France (le CRIF) refrained from inviting Israel's ambassador to the table of honor, demonstrating that, just like its equivalents in America, the council has been taken over by Left-leaning Jews…

BFM TV - 21 avril 2026 - Trêve prolongée, blocus maintenu

Conversation with a Chimera

France’s prime minister has urged Muslims and Jews to consider scrapping their halal and kosher slaughter laws as president Nicolas Sarkozy and his allies stepped up their efforts to woo far-right voters.

Prime minister François Fillon made the suggestion after Mr Sarkozy called at the weekend for butchers to clearly label meat slaughtered according to religious laws and his allies warned immigrants might impose halal meat on French schoolchildren.

François Fillon has raised a nutty, nutty point that helps to point out that France’s collective notion of laïcité has absolutely nothing to do with anything it takes up in a discussion of laïcité.

"There is something unpleasant, humiliating, and contrary to our republican tradition", said the community leader about the return of Francois Fillon.

On the proposal of Nicolas Sarkozy to label meat "according to the method of slaughter", the head of CRIF said: "It seems that the candidate Sarkozy has not quite the same positions as President Sarkozy. I see. "

Of course the terminally infantile press corps has framed the whole thing to be (unsurprisingly) the story of them uppity Jews asking for something again, but a zoo visitor can easily identify something different: strange factional politics, a tribal world view, and a picky, nutty, government rulemaking that even the center-right struggles with.

Otherwise those who can’t avert their eyes from French public polity can always have the ritual slaughter of decency to look forward to.

French Civil War watch

An incredulous interviewer for Libération PropagandaStaffel, Catherine Coroller, thinks that CRIF (Representative Council of Jewish Institutions) President Roger Cukierman is too alarmist in his latest press release when he refers to "a threat to national unity" and "extremely dangerous situation which might give rise to uncontrolable reactions of self-defense". Hard to tell if her head is firmly planted in the sand or up her ass.

WhaPpen?

Le Monde's most unfortunately named reporter is questioning whether Sunday's assault in Villeurbanne was necessarily an anti-Semitic one.

LE MONDE | 03.08.04 | 13h34

Was the assault of the three young Jews necessarily anti-Semitic? By deciding somewhat hastily in the affirmative, the Rhône police aroused intense feelings in Villeurbanne on Monday, August 2, as well as confusion among investigators, community organizations and government officials.

Sunday evening, three youths aged 16 to 18 were walking between the cours Emile Zola and the cours de la République. One wore a kippa, another, a cap with Hebrew letters, leaving no doubt as to their religious persuasion. According to their version, they "happened upon" a group of "thirteen to fourteen" young men. They mention a provocative pass on a scooter, a trash can overturned, and being sized up "from foot to head" : the tension degenerates into a brawl. Two among them receive blows, requiring six days home from work.

Five of the alleged assailants, of whom four are minors, have been detained and placed under observation in at Villeurbanne police headquarters. "Some are of Maghreban origin, others are entirely European," said a magistrate, who regretted putting things in such terms. According to them, some among them were returning from the mosque where they had been paying homage to a friend killed on a motorcycle. "We looked at each other wrong," said one of the alleged assailants. He says that one of his friends "got carried away" because of the grief.

EMOTIONAL CONFRONTATION

Neither the victims nor the assailants uttered a single anti-Semitic word during the clash, which reportedly involved ten persons directly. Monday morning, a statement released by the Rhône police announced that "fifteen youths accosted and assaulted three Jewish youths." The text expressed satisfaction at the police's rapid detention "of four of those responsible for this assault" and asserts that a meeting had been held last Friday, gathering police officials and "religious representatives" in order to "discuss the problem of the recrudescence of violence inspired by intolerance as well as intensifying the struggle against racism and anti-Semitism."

In 15 lines, the Villeurbanne assault and the proceedings mentioned echoed each other, as if each legitimized the other. At 12:37 pm, an AFP bulletin broadcast the news under the heading "Assault/Anti-Semitism" and the media machine went to work.

Crif Rhône-Alpes feels that the Jewish youths were assaulted "because they wore a kippa, because they were Jews." At the Lyon prosecutor's office, it is felt that the "the anti-Semitic nature of the acts has not been described." Interrogations revealed a preceding encounter that reportedly pitted the two rival groups against each other. Investigators concluded that there had been an emotional confrontation. The police statement transformed this into "an assault of the same type, though less violent, several days beforehand." The prosecutor's office foresees a judicial hearing for "aggravated gang violence." At a more leisurely pace.

Daily Bulletin

France to 'accept fair share of blame' The AFP is reporting that Rwanda's Foreign minister Charles Murigande is claiming that French FM Michel Barnier assured him during a meeting in Pretoria that Barnier was ready "ready to accept a fair share of the blame." "He also said France was not ready to accept an overstated role," said Murigande. NP readers will remember that the Rwandan government announced plans on Friday to establish a commission to determine France's measure of responsibility in the 1994 genocide. Lawyers to Seek Release of Guantánamo Four The AFP is also reporting that a Paris appellate judge will hear arguments by lawyers representing the four men who are seeking their release. The four are being held for "association with wrongdoers as part of a terrorist enterprise" and Mourad Benchellali and Nizar Sassi are also being investigated for "possession and use of false documents" after phony passports were discovered in their possession. They used the passports to gain entry to Afghanistan in 2001. In particular, the four are suspected of having participated in a Jihadi training and recruitment network. The judge's decision is expected in the coming hours. Sassi and Benchellali spent six months in Afghanistan. Brahim Yadel and Imad Achab Kanouni spent a year and a half there. The four were detained by American forces on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border in December 2001. They returned to France last Tuesday after being released from the Guantánamo and were placed under police observation and then transfered to prison in the night of Saturday to Sunday. The four have told their lawyers that they suffered treatments in Guantánamo similar to that visited on prisoners by US soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Bank Robberies Drop by Half in 10 Years Le Figaro reports that armed robberies of banks are down a whopping 50% since 1994, representing a drop from 1,122 to only 589 armed bank robberies in 2003, when the crimes represented only 9.3% of all armed robbery in France. The total is seven and a half times fewer than occured in 1977. Le Figaro claims the drop is due to improved security 200 Gather at Defiled Saverne Cemetery The AFP reports that two hundred people have held a ceremony at the Jewish cemetery in Saverne that was found vandalized last Wednesday. Local elected officials and representatives of several religions were present for the ceremony called by the main Israelite Consistory of France and that of Bas-Rhin. "Nazism began with acts of this nature. Vigilance is necessary more than ever," said Alain Kahn, whose father's tomb was among those defaced. Mr. Kahn's father survived internment at Auschwitz. The Saverne prosecutor's office is expected to open an investigation.

Lebanese Committee Seeks to Save Al-Manar in France The Daily Star is reporting that a six-member committee has formed in Beirut with the intention of traveling to France to seek prevent the government from banning Hizbullah's satellite channel al-Manar from broadcasting over Paris-based satellite operator Eutelsat. Last month, France's High Council on Broadcasting (CSA) decided to ban the channel from broadcasting in France due to the violent and anti-Semitic nature of its programming. Last October, the channel ran a miniseries entitled Al-Shutat (diaspora) which purported to depict the history of the Jews from 1812 to 1948, including dramatizations of ritual murder. Following complaints lodged by the Representative Council of France's Jewish Institutions (Crif), CSA issued a finding that the broadcasts could constitute incitation to racial hatred and notified France's attorney general. Al-Manar, which has an estimated viewership of 200 million worldwide, famously broadcast a report making the slanderous assertion that Israel had supposedly had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks and, according to al-Manar, forewarned 4,000 of its nationals who allegedly worked at the Twin Towers and who, the report claimed, failed to show up for work that morning. French Troops Seal off Darfur The AFP reports that French troops have secured the Chadian/Sudanese border and have begun flying in relief supplies to the town of Abeche. Two hundred French troops are to patrol the border in cooperation with Chadian troops. French ambassador to Chad Jean-Pierre Bercot told the AFP that should the Janjaweed engage French troops, the former will be splattered on the desert. "Our capacity to react will be jointly decided with our Chadian partners. With our presence on the ground, we want to show we will be there to attest to any incursions by the Janjaweed before the eyes of all the world." NPR also reports. France has also expressed its condolences to the Paraguayan people following Sunday's deadly fire at a mall in the capital Asunción, which at last count had killed 340 people. French authorities announced that they would be extending unspecified aid to Paraguay in response.

In France, Seven of Ten Racist Acts are against Jews

rance's National Advisory Council on Human Rights (Conseil national consultatif des droits de l'homme) has submitted its annual report (PDF: 766k/650 pp) to prime minister Raffarin. The report indicates there were 817 racially motivated incidences of violence in France in 2003 — against 1,313 for 2002, a drop of 38%. This decline holds true across the board: 229 assaults, down 152, and 600 threats or acts of intimidation, down 399. Thirty-two persons wounded.

Anti-Semitic violence peaked last spring when the Iraq war began: 78 acts recorded for the months of March to May alone. And, reports Le Monde:

Anti-Semitism remains in the majority relative to other forms of racism. This trend, begun in 2000 with the flare-up of anti-Jewish violence during the start of the second Intifada, has continued in 2003 with 72% of violent threats recorded. "Anti-Semitism continues to be very much present in French society," observes the CNCDH. The data, which were also recorded by the Interior Ministry and the Representative Council of France's Jewish Institutions [Conseil représentatif des institutions juives de France or CRIF], show that violence has been maintained at a "considerable level." Five hundred eighty-eight incidents are cited, including 125 violent acts (70 assaults, 49 desecrations of places belonging to the Jewish community and 6 arsons) and 463 threats (insults, graffiti or leaflets).

Worrisome sign: 32 assaults targeted children and minors and the number of victims  (21 in 2003) has never been as high. "These statistics demonstrate that violence against the Jewish community is taking root and getting worse," the report states. "According to the police, the perpetrators come principally from among "the young delinquents of the so-called problem neighborhoods," who act as much out of xenophobic provocation as out of the rejection of all institutions, with members of the Jewish community joining the traditional targets (the police, firefighters, doctors...)

The report also notes, however, that 81% of violent acts target the Maghreban population, which is "the highest percentage since 1993." There was also a "disturbing percentage" of acts with anti-Islamic intentions: 36 attacks or threats against Muslim places (mosque, place of prayer or burial plot). The report speaks of a "growing conflation" of anti-Arab racism and hostility to Muslims.

CNCDH also commissioned a poll of 1,052 people by BVA that indicated that opinions on immigration haven't really changed. Forty-one percent feel that the number of immigrants is too high (which, believe it or not, represents a ten-point drop since last year!!) Forty-six percent say the presence of foreigners is source of tension. Thirty-nine percent say there are too many Muslims and 23% say that Muslims are "not like other French people."

25 Years Ago — Fate of 12-Year-Old Palestinian Led to 911 Attack and the Invention of the Word Pallywood: "If we ignore how images propagate and mutate, we hand the moral high ground to those who traffic in outrage"

Today’s rising tide of Jew-hatred from all directions – Right, Left, Muslim, Christian, secular, knowing and unknowing – started on September 30, 2000 
— Richard Landes

UPDATED: Tuesday marks the quarter-century anniversary of the beginning of one of the biggest scandals of the past 50 years, the Mohammed al-Dura affair, which saw French television video and photos of a 12-year-old Palestenian and his father being supposedly felled by Israeli bullets in Gaza, and which led to the creation of a new word — Pallywood.

Chief among those instrumental in debunking the hoax was a young free-thinker by the name of Philippe Karsenty, and so it was natural that, 25 years later, Alexandre Gilbert of the Times of Israel would wish to interview him.

In the interview, the man who has since become the spokesman for le Comité Trump France gave to the Isreali newspaper, he spoke about the media wars — regarding Daniel Pearl, etc, but most notably the al Durrah affair which had its start on September 30, 2000; which Karsenty himself was instrumental in helping to debunk; and whose lawsuits No Pasarán covered over the years. (Shookhran for the instalink, Sarah.)

Less than a year after the IDF's dastardly Jews' alleged murder of the 12-year-old Arab — not, as it turns out, at all incidentally — the world witnessed the 911 attacks on New York and Washington.

Before we take a look at the Philippe Karsenty interview, a must-read is the piece that Richard Landes penned in The Jerusalem Post five years ago — as the Abrahamic accords were being signed — about the twentieth (20th) anniversary of "one of the most disastrous events in the year 2000". It's a hard, indeed a mind-boggling, read — check out RL's blog, The Augean Stables — especially coming three years before the October 7th massacre.

The image of Muhammad al-Dura via the narrative that the IDF had targeted him became the global symbol of Palestinian suffering at the hand of Israeli cruelty. It rapidly became an “icon of hatred” that had a greater immediate and long-term effect on the new century than any other such vehicle of incitement.

A cry arose, for some of pain, for some of rage, but for all a clear sign that the Infidel, led by the twin Satans Israel and USA, were making war on Muslims. Indeed, no single event so far has done more to arouse the spirit of jihad against the West than this footage, which, as Bin Laden quickly pointed out in his recruiting video for global jihad, demanded vengeance against al Yahud and their allies.

 … the Muhammad al-Dura icon fed an apocalyptic jihadi narrative: to #GenerationCaliphate Israel was the Dajjal (Antichrist).

The West followed suit. Lethal journalists like Robert Fisk quickly affirmed the charge of deliberate murder. Where before such comparisons were considered ugly if not worse, now comparing Israel to the Nazis became common. A prominent French news anchor, speaking for many, declared that al-Dura “erased, replaced the image of the boy in the Warsaw Ghetto.” It was a new, post-modern “replacement narrative.”

Instead of Christians or Muslims replacing Israel as the true Chosen People, it was the former chosen people replacing the Nazis, and the poor Palestinian victim suffering the fate of the Jews. The progressive refrain, “Israel has lost the moral high ground.” … 

 

 … Al-Dura justified terrorist attacks on Israel in the minds of both Muslims and non-Jews, especially Europeans. “What choice do they have?” progressives responded when Palestinians targeted Israel civilians. They were merely resisting …

 

 … At the height of the suicide terror campaign, siding with the Palestinians was a “litmus test of liberal credentials.” Suggesting this heinous violence was genocidal aspiration, not state-deprived desperation, was a ticket to cancellation.

 

 … ANGRY PROTESTS in the West accused Israel of genocide, and a large plurality of Europeans believed it.  … the Western legacy media constituted one of the most potent weapons in the cognitive war “Caliphaters” waged against the West. 

 

 … The icon of al-Dura was the first successful blood libel in the West since the Nazis rode their ecumenical Jew-hatred to mega-death for all in 1930s and ‘40s. Unlike earlier versions, this was spread by a Jew and carried by the professional news media, and its primary impact was on progressive, leftist circles, giving birth to a “new antisemitism” in its 21st-century avatar, eliminationist “anti-Zionism.” Today’s rising tide of Jew-hatred from all directions – Right, Left, Muslim, Christian, secular, knowing and unknowing – started on September 30, 2000. 

 

 … Whether we know it or not, those of us entering this very grim-looking third decade of the 21st century are the inheritors of this al-Durah-triggered new wave of Jew-hatred and its accompaniments: fake news, conspiracy theories and violence.

 

 … As some honest Arab journalists point out, #FakeNews is something of an Arab specialty, and for far too long public opinion has been manipulated by dishonest and malevolent actors masquerading as journalists. 

And this brings us, full circle, to Alexandre Gilbert's Times of Israel interview with Philippe Karsenty.

Alexandre Gilbert: Osama bin Laden explicitly cited the Al-Dura case as justification both for the assassination of Daniel Pearl, a journalist from the Washington Post, who was about to find him, in Abbottabad in 2002, and for the 9/11 2001 aircraft hijack and attacks on the United States. How do you interpret that?

Philippe Karsenty: Bin Laden invoked Al‑Dura very directly. He pointed to the footage as proof that Jews and the West were child‑killers. He then used that grievance as a pretext to justify Daniel Pearl’s murder — presenting it as vengeance for Al‑Dura. And he cited the same image again as moral cover for 9/11, claiming that the attacks on New York and Washington on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, were retaliation for the supposed killing of a Palestinian child. In his rhetoric, one short televised clip became the excuse both for executing a single journalist and for massacring thousands of civilians. 

That’s how far the reach of this image went: from Gaza, to Karachi, to the Twin Towers. Modern media ecosystems — from satellite networks to the social platforms that would come later — are accelerants. An emotionally charged image, broadcast without context, can spiral into a global narrative within days. Bin Laden’s invocation was not the origin of that mechanism, but it displayed how effectively extremists could harness it. That is why accountability, forensic analysis, and the willingness to pursue uncomfortable inquiries are vital. If we ignore how images propagate and mutate, we hand the moral high ground to those who traffic in outrage.

It’s crucial to understand that we moved from the notion of “deicide” to “genocide.” In Christian tradition, Jews were stigmatized as “Christ-killers.” With the Al-Dura case, the Jews were recast as child-killers, genocidal by nature. This image of Mohammed Al-Dura, supposedly shot by Israeli soldiers in 2000, became the ultimate weapon of demonization against the Jewish people. And honestly, if you search through every existing representation, you won’t find anything more powerful or more destructive than that image. Everyone knows it, even people completely detached from politics or the conflict.

 … You stress that you weren’t the first to discover the Al-Dura fabrication. Who was?

Philippe Karsenty: It was Nahum Shahaf, an Israeli researcher. He was the one who opened my eyes. When I saw his analysis, it struck me as obvious. So I approached France 2, expecting them to correct their mistake. Instead, they dismissed me. I went to the CRIF, to the Israeli ambassador—everyone brushed me off. Ambassador Daniel Shek even refused to shake my hand, calling me a “conspiracy theorist.” That was the environment I was up against.

Let’s talk about the legal battle. How did it begin?

Philippe Karsenty: Since I had no legal standing to sue, I published a deliberately provocative article, hoping France 2 would sue me for defamation. They did. In 2006, at my first trial, the prosecutor said I had presented convincing evidence of a staged event and should be acquitted. Yet I was convicted. On appeal, the court demanded France 2 release its raw footage. I had obtained 18 minutes of it. The footage exposed blatant inconsistencies. I was acquitted, and the case made global headlines—even appearing in US diplomatic cables later revealed by WikiLeaks.

But the story didn’t end there, did it?

Philippe Karsenty: No. France 2 appealed to the Court of Cassation. Despite the Attorney General’s conclusions in my favor, I lost—on a procedural point. The court ruled that I didn’t yet have the footage when I published my article, and therefore my claim was defamatory at the time, even if later proven correct. In 2013, at the retrial, I brought experts from around the world—architects, analysts. France 2 was demolished in court. But once again, the verdict went against me. I was ordered to pay €11,000. At that point, I decided to stop. The system was hopelessly politicized.

So where does that leave you today?

Philippe Karsenty: Today, I continue to say openly that the Al-Dura video was staged. France 2 can no longer sue me. Their only argument—that I lacked proof at the time of publication—has expired. I have the evidence, and I speak freely. The irony is that the more they tried to silence me, the more the affair spread—the Streisand effect in action.

How do you respond to being associated with conspiracy figures like Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, or Alain Soral?

Philippe Karsenty: I reject that completely. I have no connection to those people. In fact, they despise my work. Why? Because it disrupts their antisemitic narratives. I expose Palestinian propaganda as fraudulent, which doesn’t serve their agenda. Unlike others who were co-opted by conspiracy networks, I remained isolated—especially in the pre-social media era. That isolation made the fight very lonely. But it also kept me clean. 

 … The distorted vision of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is mostly in France a quarrel between Alsatian Ashkenazi and Algerian Berbers, isn’t it ? 

Philippe Karsenty: Yes. And a conflict suggests two equal sides fighting each other. That’s not the case. Israel never wakes up in the morning deciding to kill its neighbors. What exists is a war: the Arab attempt to destroy Israel, ongoing for 75 years. They tried conventional wars, terrorism, rockets—all failed. Where they succeeded was in waging media warfare. And in that realm, Israel doesn’t fight. The Al-Dura case was their greatest victory. That’s why I insist: this is not a conflict, it’s a war fought on a different battlefield—the media.