FRANCE2 TAPES: AL DURAH MATERIAL
Notes by Richard Landes after three viewings

The main material from the France2 tapes has already been discussed at length in terms of its insights into Pallywood and al Durah. In this essay, I will address what the tapes tell us further about the al Durah affair aside from the direct evidence.

The final scene on Talal's tapes from September 30, just after the al-Durah sequence shows a man being loaded in an ambulance at the intersection. This footage, which looks like much of the Pallywood footage from earlier in the day (no stretcher, no signs of blood, clumsy evacuation), is clearly neither the boy nor the father (since they would have been very bloody and evacuated from the barrel). If Talal still had enough battery power to take this shot after the al Durah scene, why did he not take more pictures of the allegedly far more lurid al Durah scene - the boy "bleeding for twenty minutes," the hail of gunfire, their evacuation?

Perhaps the most important information about al Durah on the France2 tapes comes from the day after. This day-after footage has a terrible photo from the previous day of the boy in the hospital (not necessarily Muhamed al Durah) with his stomach torn (or cut) open and his guts spilling out. (I have not been able to get a copy of this photo and would welcome a copy from anyone who has it.) It is difficult to imagine this gaping hole as an entry wound, suggesting that he was either shot from behind or further opened up by doctors in the hospital. In any case, such a wound certainly would have left massive quantities of blood on the ground behind the barrel.

The footage taken early in the morning by Talal, however, shows several scenes of the barrel that show no sign of blood where the father and son sat. The ground is slightly darker behind the barrel, which prompted Enderlin to remark to me that perhaps they had either cleaned up the pool of blood, or poured sand over it. Given that the wall should have been splattered with blood, and that the bleeding would have covered far more than the area that is slightly darker, including the wall, this seems like an unlikely explanation.

In any case, the Palestinians involved clearly understood that the lack of blood posed serious problems for their "narrative," supplied fresh blood for the visit of the journalists who arrived later in the day. The picture below shows the scene around noon (to judge from the lack of shadows). Note the bright red color of the blood, something that no journalist remarked in their reports. (Goldenberg actually refers to the "darkening blood…" - a day later?) Additionally there is no blood on the wall where presumably a total of nine wounds from high-speed bullets would have left quite a display.

To urge France2 to release the tapes of Talal’s work on September 30, 2000 and the following day, October 1.

Arlette Chabot is the News Director of France 2 Television who was present when Denis Jeambar, Daniel Leconte and Luc Rosenzweig saw the rushes. She knows how bad the situation is, and needs to know it won't go away. As of now, Enderlin and Abu Rahmeh continue to work together for France2 and inform the French public on the situation in the Middle East.
Send email to:a.chabot@france2.fr

Patrick De Carolis is a newly-appointed President of French Television. He should know that his predecessors have presided over massive journalist incompetence.
Write to: w.devriendt@francetv.com

Dominique Baudis is President of Conseil Superieure de l'Audiovisuel (roughly translated as the French Broadcast Authority) which concluded that journalists should not broadcast stories that cannot be conclusively proven and should correct reports promptly and with the same prominence as the original story.
Submit comment by going to the following website:
http://www.csa.fr/outils/contact/contacteznous_formulaire.php

If you wish to write in French, cut and paste the following:

Madame, (ou Monsieur)

Je vous écris pour vous demander de bien vouloir rendre publics les rushes qui ont été tournés par Talal Abou Rahma le 30 septembre et le 1er octobre 2000. Ceux qui ont vu ces images affirment que ces rushes contiennent de nombreuses mises en scène, que votre correspondant, Charles Enderlin a présenté comme des informations réelles. Compte tenu du fort impact de ces images et des doutes sérieux concernant son travail, le public devrait avoir le droit d'accéder à l'information brute, tourné par Abu Rahma, qui lui a permis de tirer ses conclusions dramatiques.

Je vous remercie de bien vouloir tenir compte de ma demande et de m'informer personnellement de la suite que vous comptez donner à ma requête.

Bien à vous.

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[I write you to ask that you make public the raw footage that Talal Abu Rahma filmed on the 30th of September and the 1st of October, 2000. Those who have seen this footage assert that it contains numerous staged scenes which your correspondent, Charles Endeerlin presented to the public as real news. Given the powerful impact of such images and the serious doubts concerning the work of these two men, the public should have the right to see the primary sources which permitted him to draw his dramatic conclusions.

I thank you in advance for taking into account my request and informing me personally of the ways in which you intend to pursue this matter.

Best wishes,]

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