“We have some secrets, you know, for our self…” – Talal Abu Rahma interviewed by Esther Schapira

Interviewed by Esther Schapira a year after the Al Durah incident, Talal Abu Rahma, France2’s Palestinian photojournalist, avers that he filmed the kind of the bullets fired at the Al Durahs and further states that France2 collected bullets from the wall – but he cannot recall the size of the bullets and maintains that the information is “secret’. There are several problems with this testimony:

  • Problem 1: Internal inconsistency – Earlier, in the same interview (See Video Clip # 5 at 20:19) Schapira had another exchange with Abu Rahma concerning the bullets. Here is the transcript of that segment:

Schapira: Did you collect bullets, the other day -or did anyone else?

Abu Rahma: (Pause) “Yani, sort of”

Schapira: “So, you have some bullets of the original site?”

Abu Rahma: “No, we filmed”.

  • Problem 2: Internal inconsistency – Slightly after the exchange above, Abu Rahma flatly contradicts himself – again. , Esther Schapira returns once more to questioning Abu Rahma about the bullets filmed or collected the next day. (See Video Clip #5 starting at 24:38. At 24:44 Abu Rahma says that that he did not film the bullets on the ground, because the were too many people. “It was like a bazaar “, he says.  Below is the transcript of that exchange.

Schapira: And just one more question concerning the next day, when you said you filmed the bullets there. How many bullets where there? Was it a pile, or a how do you have to –

Abu Rahma: No, I don’t film the bullets in the..

Schapira: – in the wall.

Abu Rahma: not in the wall

Schapira: -on the ground

Abu Rahma: not in the ground, sorry. Not in the ground. Because it was too many people and it was like a bazaar. Everybody coming to look what’s going on.

  • Problem 3: External inconsistency – In a subsequent interview by Esther Schapira of Charles Enderlin, France2’s Jerusalem correspondent and Abu Rahma’s boss, Enderlin notes the following: “ … the next day, early in the morning, a Palestinian general went on the site, picked up the bullets, removed the stone, went into the barrel -This was the secret that Talal didn’t want to tell you in his movie – and if you would have asked me, I would have tell you ‘yes, a general told Talal: “I have the bullets. Don’t tell it to everybody” and he told me ” a General has the bul-” “Talal, listen, nobody will believe – and you cannot pick up a few bullets in the ground and -what’s left of the bullets in the gr -or inside the barrel- and say this comes from the Israeli position . Nobody will believe you.” So the fact that it was a Palestinian general that went there in the morning doesn’t mean anything. But, ah, I, again, we don’t have any other facts.” (See Audio Clip #1 at 4:39 -5:31).