Some pro-Israeli social media users are claiming that Palestinians are posting videos pretending to be injured by the bombing campaign carried out by Israel since October 7. On October 26, for example, pro-Israeli accounts started sharing claims that a Palestinian video maker had pretended to be injured. Their so-called proof was two videos – one said to show the man in a hospital bed and the next one, apparently filmed the next day, showing him in perfect health. It turns out, however, that the video of the injured man is from August 2023, months before the war broke out. Moreover, it shows another man – and a real victim of the ongoing conflict.
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- Pro-Israel social media accounts have accused a Palestinian video maker, Saleh al-Jafarawi, of being an “actor” paid by Hamas. They have been circulating a video montage that they say shows al-Jafarawi lying injured in a hospital bed on October 25, and then a video supposedly posted the next day where he is walking through the streets of Gaza in good health.
- The video showing a man in a hospital bed is actually from August 23, and shows a different person, as demonstrated by several videos shared on TikTok and an article published by an NGO.
- The state of Israel’s X account posted this misleading montage, though it later deleted the post. However, the video is still circulating online and some posts featuring the video have garnered millions of views.
The fact check, in detail
This type of accusation is not new. For the past few years, some Israeli websites have been accusing Gaza residents of staging scenes to make themselves look like victims – a practice these sites have dubbed “Pallywood” (a blend between “Palestine” and “Hollywood”). This theory has reemerged online in earnest since the war between Hamas and Israel broke out in early October.
Over the past few days, many pro-Israel social media users have been spreading claims that a Gazan video maker named Saleh al-Jafarawi is an actor working for Hamas and that he has posted videos pretending to be injured by the Israeli bombardments. They’ve used the hashtag #Pallywood alongside these claims.
Al-Jafarawi has indeed been posting videos every day on Instagram to document what has been happening in Gaza since the start of the war. However, these pro-Israel accounts claim that he shared a video of himself in a hospital bed, only to post videos of himself in perfect health, walking the streets of Gaza, the very next day.
A fake news item shared by Israel’s official social media account… then deleted
“He’s revived!”, reads the caption of this tweet featuring the video posted on October 26 by one anti-Palestinian account. The tweet has since been viewed two million times. The official X account of the state of Israel also shared the fake story about al-Jafarawi the same day in two separate tweets… which it deleted a few hours later.
In these two posts, the state of Israel went into detail in its claims that Saleh al-Jafarawi was an actor and that the hospital scene was staged, explaining, for example, that “most of the machines are disconnected and the ones which are have fake stats”.
However, on Friday, October 27, the video was still being circulated by pro-Israel accounts.
One high-profile figure who shared the video montage was Hananya Naftali, a former member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s communications team. Naftali has 385,000 followers on X.
“I don’t watch Netflix because Pallywood propaganda is the actual comedy,” he wrote in his post, which garnered more than one million views.
A video from August 2023 of a young Palestinian with an amputation
However, al-Jafarawi isn’t the person in the hospital bed video. This video was actually filmed in August 2023, before the conflict began on October 7. It shows a young Palestinian hospitalised after losing his leg.
If you carry out a reverse image search, then you’ll pull up the original video posted on a TikTok account on August 18, 2023.
The account in question shared a number of videos of this bedridden teenager with an amputated leg. One of the posts has a link to a TikTok account belonging to a close friend of the injured young man who gives updates on his friend’s treatment and condition.
A video posted by this account on August 2 shows the same young man in a bed and room identical to those shown in the video posted on August 18.
An image of the same hospital room appears in this article published by the pro-Palestinian NGO International Solidarity Movement on August 25, 2023 – a story that was also picked up by the Indian fact-checking outlet AltNews.
The article explains that the young man, named Mohammed Zendiq, lost his leg after an attack by the Israeli forces on a refugee camp on July 24.
Saleh al-Jafarawi, a video maker in Gaza
The video of the young man in hospital has nothing to do with Saleh al-Jafarawi.
Al-Jafarawi, an amateur singer and video maker from Gaza with 1.6 million followers on Instagram, has been sharing images of how the war is playing out in Gaza. He has filmed some recent videos in hospitals, where he stands among victims, documenting the brutal consequences of the Israeli bombings on Gazan civilians.
Al-Jafarawi has come under criticism in recent days, especially by pro-Israel accounts that claim that he has been supporting Hamas in some of his posts.
‘Pallywood’: recurrent fake news items about events being staged
Al-Jafarawi is not the only person to be falsely accused of staging scenes of Palestinian suffering. A number of fake news items in this genre have been circulating since the start of the war.
The term “Pallywood” was coined in 2005 by the American historian Richard Landes, who teaches in Israel. He used it to describe what he believes is a phenomenon of Palestinians staging scenes of suffering that they hope will be picked up online and by the media to undercut Israeli policy.
However, many of the claims around Pallywood that have been circulating in recent days have been proven false.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said 8,796 people have been killed in three weeks of Israeli bombardments on the enclave, two-thirds of them women and children
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