Charles Enderlin (; born 1945) is a French-Israeli journalist, specialising in the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

and Israel. He is the author of a number of books on the subject, including ''Shamir, une biographie'' (1991), ''Shattered Dreams: The Failure of the Peace Process in the Middle East, 1995–2002'' (2002), and ''The Lost Years: Radical Islam, Intifada and Wars in the Middle East 2001–2006'' (2007). He was awarded France's highest decoration, the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

, in August 2009. Enderlin came to international public attention in September 2000, when he provided the

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique used in radio, television, filmmaking, theatre, and other media in which a descriptive or expository voice that is not part of the narrative (i.e., non- ...

for a

France 2 France 2 () is a French free-to-air public television channel. The flagship channel of France Télévisions, it broadcasts generalist programming including news, entertainment (such as dramas, films, and game shows), factual programmes, and sp ...

report on the killing of 12-year-old boy

Muhammad al-Durrah On 30 September 2000, the second day of the Second Intifada, 12-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah () was killed at the Netzarim Junction in the Gaza Strip during widespread protests and riots across the Palestinian territories against Israeli ...

by soldiers of the Israeli army. The event was important at the start of the

Second Intifada The Second Intifada (; ), also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its Israeli-occupied territories, occupation from 2000. Starting as a civilian uprising in Jerusalem and October 2000 prot ...

.Astier, Henr
Gaza media battle in French court
BBC News, 13 November 2007. A few months after Enderlin's report, a small group of people in France (Gérard Huber, Philippe Karsenty, Luc Rosenzweig) contested the origin of the bullets that killed al-Durrah and alleged that the scene was staged.Hervé Deguine
Charles Enderlin. Il gagne la guerre du soupçon
, Médias (11), décembre 2006, online version. France 2 sued Karsenty for libel. Karsenty was eventually convicted of defamation in 2013 and fined €7,000.

Biography

Enderlin was born in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in 1945, and grew up in

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

with his divorced mother, his sister, and his grandparents, a family of Austrian

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

s who moved to France after the ''

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, ), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a "German Question, Greater Germany") arose after t ...

''. He studied medicine in Nancy, and moved to Israel in December 1968 at the age of 22 to live on a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

. In 1971, he became a journalist with an Israeli radio station. Two years later, he became correspondent of Radio Monte Carlo, and the next year, senior editor at the news department of '' Kol Yisrael''. At the beginning of the 1970s, he acquired Israeli citizenship. In 1981, he became a correspondent with the French television channel ''Antenne 2'' (now ''

''), acquiring the title of ''grand reporter'' in 1988 ("''grand reporter''" is a senior title in the French media). Three years later, he became chief of the Israel bureau of ''France 2''. As of 2005, he was also vice-president of the Association of Foreign Press Correspondents in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. He has studied and written extensively on the political and diplomatic process of normalisation between Israel and the

Palestinian Authority The Palestinian Authority (PA), officially known as the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), is the Fatah-controlled government body that exercises partial civil control over the Palestinian enclaves in the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, ...

, and wrote an overview of the negotiations in 1997, published as ''Paix ou guerre, les secrets des négociations israélo-arabes 1917–1997'' ("''Peace or War, the Secrets of Israeli–Palestinian Negotiations, 1917–1997''"). He was awarded the ''Chevalier de l'Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur'' on 12 August 2009. In August 2015, he retired from his post in the Jerusalem office, and was replaced by Franck Genauzeau.

Muhammad al-Durrah reportage and lawsuits

In September 2000,

footage In filmmaking and video production, footage is raw, unedited material as originally filmed by a movie camera or recorded by a digital video camera, which typically must be film editing, edited to create a motion picture, digital video, video cli ...

of the reported shooting in the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

of a Palestinian boy,

, was broadcast by France 2. Narrating the footage, Enderlin stated that al-Durrah had been targeted and killed by shots fired from Israeli positions. He came under criticism from a number of commentators, including Philippe Karsenty, who claimed that the bullets that killed the boy were not fired by the Israeli army, and that Enderlin had helped stage the scene. France 2 sued Karsenty for libel. Karsenty was eventually convicted of defamation in 2013 and fined €7,000.

Books

* ''Les Juifs de France entre république et sionisme'', , Le Seuil, 2020 * ''Le grand aveuglement : Israël et l'irrésistible ascension de l'islam radical'', ,

Albin Michel Albin may refer to: Places * Albin, Wyoming, US * Albin Township, Brown County, Minnesota, US * Albin, Virginia, US People * Albin (given name), origin of the name and people with the first name "Albin" * Albin (surname) ;Mononyms * Albin of ...

, 2009 * ''Par le feu et par le sang. Le combat clandestin pour l'indépendance d'Israël 1936–1948'', ,

, 2008 * ''The Lost Years: Radical Islam, Intifada and Wars in the Middle East 2001–2006'' (trans. Suzanne Verderber) , Other Press 2007 * ''Les années perdues : Intifada et guerres au Proche-Orient, 2001–2006'' ,

Fayard Fayard (complete name: ''Librairie Arthème Fayard'') is a French Paris-based publishing house established in 1857. Fayard is controlled by Hachette Livre. In 1999, Éditions Pauvert became part of Fayard. Claude Durand was director of Fayar ...

2006 * ''Shattered Dreams: The Failure of the Peace Process in the Middle East, 1995–2002'' (2002) :(''Le Rêve brisé : Histoire de l'échec du processus de paix au Proche-Orient (1995–2002)'') * 1997: ''Paix ou guerre,les secrets des négociations israélo-arabes 1917–1997'' (éd.Stock) * ''Shamir, une biographie'' (1991)

References

External links

jewishjournal.com Shattered Dreams Book Review

Interview With Charles Enderlin

{{DEFAULTSORT:Enderlin, Charles 1945 births Living people Writers from Metz 20th-century French Jews 20th-century French journalists Israeli journalists French male journalists French emigrants to Israel 21st-century French journalists Israeli people of Austrian-Jewish descent French people of Austrian-Jewish descent Journalists from Paris Jewish journalists 21st-century French Jews Knights of the Legion of Honour

Biography

Muhammad al-Durrah reportage and lawsuits

Books

See also

References

External links