. On April 15, HuffPost continued its practice of deliberately misleading its readers, by misidentifying convicted murders and terror-supporters as "activists." This time, HuffPost employed its journalistic malpractice in an effort to rehabilitate the image of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the radical leftist and militant founding member of the Black Panthers. Here's the "news" headline that HuffPost ran about him on its front page, on April 15:
To fully grasp HuffPost's malicious betrayal of even the most elementary standards of journalistic integrity, let's remind ourselves of who this person is that it labeled a "jailed activist." Courtesy of DiscoverTheNetworks (emphasis added):
Officer Daniel Faulker
[T]he event that decisively catapulted Abu-Jamal into the public eye occurred shortly after 3:55 a.m. on December 9, 1981, when a 25-year-old white Philadelphia police officer named Daniel Faulkner made a traffic stop of William Cook, Abu-Jamal’s brother, who was driving the wrong way down a one-way street. Faulkner pulled behind Cook's car, radioed for police backup, approached Cook’s vehicle, and ordered the driver to get out of his car.
While Faulkner handcuffed the driver, Abu-Jamal, who was employed at that time as a cab driver, was parked across the street in his taxi. He suddenly got out of his vehicle, ran toward Faulkner, and shot him in the back. As the officer fell, he drew his own gun and managed to shoot Abu-Jamal in the chest, wounding but not killing him. The gun-wielding cabdriver then fired repeatedly at Faulkner, finally dispatching him from close range with a bullet between his eyes. Abu Jamal's presence near the scene of the roadside stop at that particular moment has led to serious speculation that William Cook had intentionally led Faulkner into an ambush—one that had all the earmarks of other Black Panther provocations in places like Newark and Oakland.
HuffPost's "activist"
The body of evidence placing Abu-Jamal at the scene of Faulkner’s killing was overwhelming. When the arresting officers arrived at the scene, Abu-Jamal was sitting on a curb near Faulkner’s corpse, with a fresh gunshot wound incurred from the young officer’s weapon.
Not only did five witnesses see Abu-Jamal shoot Faulkner, but the bullets that were later pulled from Faulkner’s chest and brain were matched to the .38 caliber handgun that was registered to Abu-Jamal and which was sitting at his feet when the police arrived at the murder scene. Moreover, the gun had five empty cartridges when investigators found it.
This is the monster whom HuffPost labeled an "activist." And by claiming he's a "jailed activist," without referencing the fact that he is a convicted murderer, HuffPost was deliberately continuing its racial lies and incitement, which HUFF-WATCH documented in extreme detail in the special report, "Did Huffington Post's incitement and bias contribute to the murders of two NYPD officers?" Moving on, HuffPost knew, or should have known, that the "teacher" in its headline did not "ask" her students - third-graders - to write get well cards to this convicted murderer, she ordered them to do so. How do we know this? Because the AP, HuffPost's #1 most-cited news source, reported on April 11 - four days before HuffPost published its "story" - ran this story about the incident:
This is part of HuffPost's continuing, willful pattern of deliberately misleading its readers, by misidentifying convicted murders and terror-supporters as "activists." A few well-documented incidents of this pathological behavior, by the #1 most widely-read online "newspaper" in the world, which has repeatedly claimed it is "nonpartisan": Why Hamas loves HuffPost: Marwan Barghouti image-whitewashing edition In this incident, HuffPost severely edited a news story it sourced from the AP to falsely depict a convicted Palestinian mass-murderer and terror kingpin as a"jailed leader." Only after HUFF-WATCH's detailed report reached the blogosphere that HuffPost surrender, and post the entire, unedited source article - but then lied as to when it was published, in a failed attempt to cover its tracks.
Huffpo Newspeak: Out "Terrorists", In "Activists" (Jawa Report) In this incident, our friends at the Jawa Report ran with the screencaps we provided, to cover this story. In summary, in HuffPost's endless jihad against the U.S. intelligence and military communities, it falsely alleged that the NSA was "spying" on "activists porn habits." But who are the "activists" to whom HuffPost referred? Turns out they're Al Qaeda supporters and donors - as its own "news" article revealed. HuffPost deliberately ignored that fact, and relabeled supporters of the terrorists who murdered 2,977 Americans on 9/11, and countless U.S. soldiers and intelligence personnel since then.
How does this all compare to Arianna Huffington's claims that HuffPost is a professional "newspaper," and better than its competitors?
“[T]he news is not right-wing news orleft-wing news, it's the news. And that will be the sensibility, that will basically permeate our news coverage.”
- Arianna Huffington
“We are aiming to go beyond just facts, to create a narrative. We think bringing journalism to a new level is exactly what people are looking for.”
- Arianna Huffington
"If you're going to produce great journalism, you have to build a team of people who are working together and driving toward the same goals editorially.”
- Arianna Huffington
“[T]oo many reporters have forgotten that the highest calling of journalists is to ferret out the truth, consequences be damned."
- Arianna Huffington
ACTION ITEMS
If you believe HuffPost should start living up to its repeated claims of nonpartisanship, particularly in its coverage of Jewish affairs, we urge you to do three things:
(1) Make your voice known to HuffPost's senior management here
(2) Consider writing or calling one or more of HuffPost's top advertisers, to let them know your thoughts on what their ad dollars are enabling.An easy way to approach this is to scan our easy-to-use directory and find one or two corporations that you are a customer of, or have stock in. Your concerns will automatically be given considerably more weight. Also, request a follow-up after they've had a chance to review the evidence; don't let them off the hook, or sweep this under the rug.
(3) Forward the link to this story along to others who support Israel and Jews --- particularly journalists!!!
“We are in a battle, and more than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media.” - Ayman al-Zawahiri, Al Qaeda second-in-command, 2005
A few months ago, HuffPost,the world's most-read online "newspaper," debuted its entry into video "news," HuffPost "Live." Some (including us) initially dismissed it as merely Arianna's equivalent of a continuous gab-fest talk show; a merging of "The View" with "Jerry Springer," and a bit of Chris Matthews' neck-bulging hysteria thrown in for good measure. Big mistake.
The good guys at HuffPostMonitorbegan documenting the grim reality of HuffPostLive: the fact that its "host/producer," Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, has been re-Tweeting inflammatory rants from documented anti-Semites, and posting articles containing one-sided, inflammatory pro-Islamist propaganda. Then, in late October, Dovid Efune, the executive editor ofThe Algemeiner, came face-to-face with Shihab-Eldin's venomous pro-Islamist, anti-Israel distortions and propaganda --- in particular, his claim that the only parties in the Middle East that live in justifiable fear are (a) Iran, and (b) the Palestinians (and both are in fear of a malevolent, oppressive Israel). In Efune's words (emphasis added):
How the Huffington Post gets away with placing someone who vocally campaigns for this morally corrupt position in a role of senior responsibility, is simply beyond me. To present a more passive stance against Iranian nukes and call for the extension of diplomatic efforts is one thing. It is quite another to stand behind a terror sponsoring regime that is guilty of incitement to genocide, and blame its victims. If The Huffington Post seeks salvation; the bad apples must be cast away. Absent a thorough house cleaning, readers be warned: Arianna has created a mouthpiece for the devil.
That got us curious: Who is Shihab-Eldin? And why would HuffPost enable such a vicious pro-Hamas, anti-Semitic propagandist to anchor and produce its flagship video "news" product?
His bio is here; we stopped reading after learning that he was a producer for Al Jazeera. (In case you didn't know, Al Jazeera is one of the world's mostnotoriouspro-terrorist propaganda networks --- which threw a birthday party (video) for the Islamist terrorist who smashed a 4-year-old Jewish girl's skull to pieces, after murdering her father in front of her, to ensure that that would be the last image she'd ever see.) It wasn't until November 16, though, that HuffPost apparently decided to completely unleash Shihab-Eldin to (a) spew a breathtaking range of untruths, distortions and outright lies against Israel, while (b) completely ignoring the facts that obliterate his arguments. In total, his acts could only serve one purpose: to protect Hamas, and falsely vilify and incite hate against Israel. This is no anomaly;Shihab-Eldin is merely the newest face of what we've been documenting for four years: HuffPost's relentless effort to facilitate the cyber-jihad against the U.S. military and Israel and Jews --- while ignoring, whitewashing or downplaying the savage acts, threats and statements of militant Islamists. Today, HUFF-WATCH debuts our first, overdue feature that focuses exclusively on HuffPostLive.
After reading this, you will know why Hamas, Al Qaeda, Islamic Jihad and all their savage terrorist brethren must be delighted that Arianna has now found a new, extremely powerful means of advancing their mission. And the best part? YOU are helping to pay for HuffPostLive, via your tax dollars.
(1) HuffPostLive "host-producer" pushes Hamas lie that Gaza is "occupied" and being "terrorized" by Israel
On November 16, HuffPost positioned Ahmed Shihab-Eldin's latest screed at the very top of its World page, entitled:
Journalist Mohammad Omer, who is living in the Occupied Gaza Strip, provided us with live updates from the Rafah Refugee camp.
"There are 248 people who were injured, among them 148 children and women injured by the airstrikes," Omer said. "The airstrikes are continuing as we speak. There is a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza strip. There is nowhere to run. There is no shelter."
Let's focus first on the title of this screed: Is Gaza really being "terrorized" --- and if so, by whom?
The only parties that are "terrorizing" the residents of the Gaza Strip are Hamas and other Islamist terror groups, who relentlessly target and attempt to murder Jewish civilians, most recently through the estimated 900 rockets, missiles and mortars that they've fired into Israel since early November. They alone are forcing Israel to retaliate, to stop rockets from raining down on its civilians.
Yet as we documented here and here, if you rely primarily on HuffPost for your news, you wouldn't know anything about the hundreds of rockets that Hamas fired against Israel between Nov. 10-14, because it published not a single story on its front page or World page about them. HuffPost only jumped into action when Israel began threatening to begin "targeted assassinations against Gazans." This omission is no anomaly; for the past four years, HuffPost has been protecting Hamas and doing its PR, while simultaneously publishing inflammatory lies about Israel and Jews --- just like this one. Second, the Gaza Strip is not "occupied."
That is a particularly vile lie, that could only have been concocted by Hamas --- or one of its media propagandists. There is not a single Jew in the Gaza strip --- and with one exception, there haven't been any there since 2005, when Israel completely withdrew from the region. The lone exception was Gilad Shalit, the IDF soldier that Hamas kidnapped and unlawfully held for five years, without allowing him a single visit from the Red Cross or any "human rights" agency.
In fact, less than two months before Shihab-Eldin's screed, Israeli Knesset member Danny Danon appeared on HuffPostLive and schooled him on this lie. So why would he utter this outrageous lie, again? And why would HuffPost publish it, if not to continue its pathological efforts to protect Hamas and do its PR --- just as it has been doing for years? (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) Third, who is this alleged "journalist," Mohammed Omer, whose incendiary allegations about women and children being injured by Israel's surgical strikes against Hamas targets Shihab-Eldin accepts at face value? And what about his lie that "There is nowhere to run. There is no shelter" in Gaza?
The reality is that Omer is not a "journalist" --- he is a pro-Islamist propagandist with Electronic Intifada, which, as NGO Monitor has documented, is so biased for Hamas, and against Israel and Jew,s that it makes Al Jazeera look like the Wall St. Journal. (More: 1, 2, 3) And as honest observers know, the only "journalists" that Hamas allows to live in Gaza are those that it knows are willing to spread its propaganda.
The fact is that Israel employs super-human measures to ensure that only Hamas targets are hit, and even air-drops leaflets and makes millions of phone calls urging Palestinian civilians to stay away from Hamas installations that will be targeted in their area. How many other armies in the world go to such an extent to avoid civilian casualties? Further, President Morsi of Egypt has vocally stood by Hamas, and opened the border to Egypt for refugees. HuffPost decided that none of those facts, however, were worth mentioning. Just as it decides in pretty much every case concerning inflammatory lies against Israel and Jews. But wait, didn't Arianna Huffington publicly announce that she prohibited "inflammatory claims" at her site?
Why yes, she did, years ago. That, however, is just another of the lies that she has pathologically tells the public, and presumably, her advertisers (including your tax-funded Cadillac -- the official co-sponsor of HuffPostLive).
(2) HuffPostLive (and HuffPost) completely ignored the fake Gaza injury video, which was revealed the day beforeShihab-Eldin's screed Anyone who spends a minimal amount of time at HuffPost knows that it is very image- and video-centric. If it can obtain a imagery (especiallyvideo) of anything that advances the cyber-jihad, it is rushed to the front page, where it will stay for a good while. In some cases we've documented, HuffPost even outdoes Al Jazeera in terms of inciting hate against the U.S. military, Israel and Jews, based on what it knows (or should know) is false information.
Keep that in mind when you consider the fact that on November 15, one day before Shihab-Eldin's latest screed, a video produced by Honest Reporting showed Hamas using the BBC to stage completely phony Palestinian "injury" video (also known as "Pallywood" propaganda). Basically, the BBC video purportedly shows a grievously injured, unconscious Palestinian man being carried away... yet a few minutes later, he is (miraculously!) awake, and is (miraculously!) completely uninjured!!!
This video went viral among conservative and pro-Israel blogs. Even CNN retracted it.
So how did HuffPost (and HuffPostLive) react to this exposure of the depths to which Hamas works to perpetrate fake injuries and deaths, in order to elicit world sympathy?
By completely ignoring it.
(3) HuffPostLive (and HuffPost) completely ignored the fact that a little Palestinian boy whom Hamas alleged was killed by Israel... was actually killed by Hamas Blogger Elder of Ziyon took the lead in breakingthis story. In summary, Hamas senior terrorist-propagandist Ismail Haniyeh
(right) was quickly on the scene, kissing the forehead of a toddler whom he and other Hamas figures alleged had been cruelly killed by Israeli air strikes:
Yet even Palestinian sources on the ground admit that there were no IAF strikes in the area at the time this boy sustained his fatal injuries. Soon thereafter, it was discovered that a significant minority of the rockets that Hamashas been firing at Israeli civilian centers fell short, and landed on Palestinian homes, instead --- and this was one of them. Other blogs, includingBreitbart.com, revealed this hoax.
The Telegraph (UK) issued a retraction, and admitted that it was a Hamas rocket that killed this little boy. HuffPostLive (and HuffPost), however, completely ignored the evidence of this latest Hamas hoax.
Instead, it got busy posting new, graphic pictures of injured Palestinian children, before it could verify anything about them, and knowing of Hamas's long history of producing "Pallywood" propaganda involving little kids:
Yet as we and our friends at HuffPostMonitordocument, HuffPost never, ever publishes pictures of injured Jewish children.
(4) HuffPostLive (and HuffPost) completely ignored the fact that on Nov. 14 (two days beforeShihab-Eldin's screed), Hamas was caught Tweeting a picture of a dead boy whom it blamed on Israel -- yet it was from Syria, a month earlier
From the Tablet, with detailed reporting at Breitbart. Basically, Hamas used its official Twitter account to send out the following heartbreaking image, which it alleged was one more casualty of Israel's reckless attacks on Palestinian civilians. One little problem: the child was killed by Syrian forces, in Syria; Israel had absolutely nothing to do with it.
HuffPost Live (and HuffPost), however, completely ignored the evidence of this latest Hamas hoax.
(5) HuffPostLive (and HuffPost) completely ignored the Nov. 17 threat by Hamas to resume suicide bombings in densely-populated Israeli civilian centers
From the Times of Israel:
On Saturday, Hamas aired a propaganda clip on its television station threatening in Hebrew to resume suicide attacks in Israeli cities.
For years, HuffPost has routinely posted on its front page what it claims are "outrageous" statements by Israeli politicians --- yet it never posts any of the genocidal threats like this by Hamas, the terror group that it routinely protects and emboldens.
So in this case,
what did HuffPost decide was more "newsworthy" to put on its front page, and World page, instead of this genocidal threat?
Let's take a look:
You get the idea: HuffPost judged a psychotic starlet's "bathtub striptease" (above) and similar nonsensical "news" stories to be more important to place on its front page than a single story that demonstrates the savage reality of Hamas, and the #TerrorStateOfPalestine that it runs. HuffPostLive completely ignored this threat, as well.
(6) HuffPostLive (and HuffPost) completely ignoredthe infographic that the IDF posted that shows how Hamas deliberately positions its rocket launching sites next to nursery schools, playgrounds and other civilian areas:
Details at KleinOnline. Hamas can position the missiles it fires at Israel anywhere in the Gaza Strip. Rather than positioning them a safe distance from civilian population centers, however, it is positioning them directly next to, if not atop civilian homes, hospitals, nursery schools, etc. --- just as it did in 2008 during Cast Lead:
HuffPostLive completely ignored this fact, as well. So what did it decide was more important for its global audience to be aware of, and deserved positioning on its front page?
Let's take a look:
For the third day in a row, HuffPost left the "news" story ofStephen Colbert kissing a wax imitation of himself, near the top of its front page:
And for the third day in a row, HuffPost decided that "retired Playboy bunnies speak out"was more important to leave on its front page than anything that would criticize Hamas:
You get the idea. So how does this comport with Arianna's self-proclaimed guiding journalistic principle, though?
“[T]oo many reporters have forgotten that the highest calling of journalists is to ferret out the truth, consequences be damned.”
- Arianna Huffington, July 29, 2008
“We are aiming to go beyond just facts, to create a narrative... [W]e think bringing journalism to a new level is exactly what people are looking for.”
- Arianna Huffington, October 20, 2009
Uh-huh.
So who is responsible for creating and managing "HuffPostLive"?
(Aside from you, via your tax dollars) From this page at HuffPost:
HuffPost Live was co-created and developed by HuffPost's founding editor Roy Sekoff. Sekoff serves as President of HuffPost Live, overseeing all aspects of its ongoing development, production, and programming. HuffPost Live was co-created and developed by Gabriel Lewis, who now serves as its Executive Editor. The third member of the senior management team is Mitch Semel, Executive Editor of HuffPost Live.
(1) Make your voice known to HuffPost's senior management here.
(2) Consider writing or calling one or more of HuffPost's top advertisers, to let them know your thoughts on what their ad dollars are enabling.An easy way to approach this is to scan our easy-to-use directory and find one or two corporations that you are a customer of, or have stock in. Your concerns will automatically be given considerably more weight. Also, request a follow-up after they've had a chance to review the evidence; don't let them off the hook, or sweep this under the rug.
(3) Forward the link to this story along to others who support Jews and Israel --- particularly journalists!!!
Continued from HuffPost works hard to protect Hamas, vilify Israel - again (Nov 14), in which we documented how HuffPost devoted not a single front-page story about Hamas's torrential rocket fire against Israel since Nov. 10 --- then started running stories which falsely depict Israel as the aggressor.
Yet when Hamas or other savage Islamist terrorists target and murder Jewish civilians --- including slitting toddlers' throats, and machine-gunning to death a pregnant mother of six --- and thousands turn out for their funerals, however, HuffPost either completely ignores the story, or briefly posts it deep on a secondary page, accompanied by a picture of a truck, or a wall. HuffPost never posts pictures of Jewish victims. Instead of providing equitable coverage HuffPost pathologically dedicates its front page to what it decides are far more "newsworthy" stories --- such as about an elephant's injured toe, or a cute animal, or any of a variety of bullshit nonsense. Examples of our (and HuffPostMonitor's) deep, irrefutable physical documentation of this phenomenon:
Today, HuffPost apparently decided that it is going to once again do Hamas's PR, by depicting graphic photos of weepy Palestinians who were (supposedly) victimized by a Nazi-like Jewish state --- ...yet completely ignore the three Jews who were murdered by Hamas's rockets overnight. Here was the top of HuffPost's front page at
8:45am on November 15:
Is that really what's happening? Are the IDF and Hamas (and its savage terrorist allies) really "trading fire"? Or is Israel responding to the hundreds of rockets being fired into its civilian population centers by Hamas, et al, with surgically-targeted strikes against terrorists --- who deliberately position themselves among Palestinian civilians, to ensure the maximum possible "collateral damage"?
Now, look at that picture. We have no idea of its source, or its legitimacy, because HuffPost didn't indicate what it is or when it was taken, or if it is purely staged Pallywood propaganda. Here is the story page that the link leads to:
That is the only substantive picture on the page --- note the lack of weepy Palestinians. So where did it come from? We have no idea. By right-clicking on the image, however, and selecting "ImageInfo" (Windows), we discover that the image title is "MIDEAST-CONFLICT-large300.jpg":
When we search that term in Google, we discover that the image came from the Palm Beach Times --- but even there, there's no attribution or description.
So once again, we're left to assume that the photo is (a) legitimate, and (b) from this conflict, as opposed to from previous ones. The bottom line is that HuffPost just plastered that photo on its front page because it fit the Hamas narrative of those villainous Jews targeting and murdering poor, poor Palestinian civilians, including children... and HuuffPost just lapped it up, knowing it would serve its main purpose: to incite hate against Jews and Israel, just as it has been doing for four straight years, as we documented in our first major report on this issue:
HuffPost also completely ignored the stories -- and the pictures --- of three Israelis who were killed by Hamas rockets overnight, and the baby that was severely injured.
Even HuffPost's leftwing news "source" in Israel, Haaretz, published graphic pictures of the results of direct hits by Hamas rockets on Jewish homes in southern Israel --- which killed three civilians. From this story, published earlier in the day:
The caption reads:
"A bedroom in one of the Kiryat Malakhi apartments that suffered a direct hit from Gaza rocket fire, Nov. 15, 2012.Photo by Nir Kafri"
HuffPost published neither this photo, nor any other photo of any of the homes hit by Hamas rockets. Nor did it publish the identities or stories of the three Israelis who were killed --- which were readily available long before the weepy story of Palestinian "victims."
For example, at approximately 3:00am EST on Nov. 15, Michael Freund posted this picture of a Jewish toddler that was severely injured by one of Hamas's rockets (ht IsraelMatzav/Carl in Jerusalem):
And at 7:10am on Nov. 15, The Algemeiner, a far smaller newspaper than HuffPost (which has a larger news room than the New York Times), published the identities of the three victims, and shocking details about them --- including a 25 year old pregnant mother of three, from India:
A sampling:
25 year old Mirah Scharf... (was) visiting Israel for the memorial service of Chabad Mumbai terror victims Gabi and Rivka Holtzberg. The Hebrew anniversary of their brutal murder is today. According to Chabad website Lubavitch.com, Scharf was pregnant. Sources told The Algemeiner that she had come to Israel to give birth, but arrived early in order to be able to attend the Holtzberg memorial. Chabad members on Facebook say she was the mother of 3 young children.
HuffPost completely ignored this story --- just as it does in every other instance of Jews who were savagely targeted and murdered by Hamas, and other Islamist terror groups.
HuffPost also completely ignored the photos that were available of this attack, including this one, again, by The Algemeiner:
(From The Algemeiner) "A victim of a Gaza rocket attack on Kiryat Malachi lies in a body bag. Photo: Twitter/bneibraki."
HuffPost also completely ignored the infographic that the IDF posted that shows how Hamas deliberately positions its rocket launching sites next to nursery schools, playgrounds and other civilian areas:
Did you know that your tax dollars are subsidizing HuffPost's incitement and bias?
If you aren't sickened quite enough by what you've read thus far, how's this:
All of these practices represent a fundamental clash of the lies that Arianna Huffington has been telling the public, and her advertisers,
since HuffPost launched in 2005 --- that it is a "nonpartisan"
newspaper, only interested in "ferreting out the truth" in journalism:
“[T]he news is not right-wing news orleft-wing news, it's the news. And that will be the sensibility, that will basically permeate our news coverage.” - May 3, 2005
“[T]oo many reporters have forgotten that the highest calling of journalists is to ferret out the truth, consequences be damned.” - Arianna Huffington, July 29, 2008
“We are aiming to go beyond just facts, to create a narrative... [W]e think bringing journalism to a new level is exactly what people are looking for.” - Arianna Huffington, October 20, 2009
ACTION ITEMS
If
you believe HuffPost should stop doing PR for Hamas and other Islamist terror groups, and inciting hatred against
Israel and Jews, we urge you to do three things:
(1) Make your voice known to HuffPost's senior management here.
(2) Consider writing or calling one or more of HuffPost's top advertisers, to let them know your thoughts on what their ad dollars are enabling.An
easy way to approach this is to scan our easy-to-use directory and
find one or two corporations that you are a customer of, or have stock
in. Your concerns will automatically be given considerably more
weight. Also, request a follow-up after they've had a chance to review
the evidence; don't let them off the hook, or sweep this under the
rug. (3) Forward the link to this story along to others who support Jews and Israel --- particularly journalists!!!
Most Americans have never heard the term "PallyWood."
But if one wants to understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly in terms of the "news" that one sees concerning it on certain websites, one must first understand that this conflict is not being fought primarily with bullets and bombs. The primary battlefield is the media, and the public perceptions that the "winner" is able to generate.
"PallyWood" is the name given to the Palestinian propaganda-and-libel machine, which churns out lie after lie about Jews in general, and Israeli Jews in specific. Unfortunately, by the time Israel begins to attempt to defend itself against these lies, they've made it around the world several times over. And it is usually only weeks or months later before honest observers recognize that once again, "PallyWood" has distorted public perceptions based on provable lies --- exactly as it intended to do.
The following provides the honest observer with a brief introduction to the "PallyWood" phenomenon, its tactics and strategies, and why it is so incredibly dangerous to those who wish to have a sincere, fact-based discussion on how to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The content in this article is divided into two sections:
Videos and multimedia presentations that discuss "PallyWood" in detail, how members of the media and "human rights" groups are complicit in propagating the lies, and the bloody result of what happens when these lies go unexposed, until it's to late. Special focus is devoted to the al Dura libel.
Brief articles discussing "PallyWood," primarily focused on staged photography ("fauxtography")
(1) "The Big Lies" An excellent beginner's introduction to Palestinians' manufacturing of outrageous libels in order to incite hatred of, and violence against Israelis and Jews worldwide --- often with the invaluable complicity of "journalists" and "news" sources who accept and transmit whatever they say, without even a cursory analysis. Produced by Honest Reporting. (2) "Gaza Beach Tragedy" (12:18) From Second Draft'sdescription: "On 6/9/06, [an] explosion on a Gaza beach killed a family. Palestinians and MSM blamed Israel, showing Huda Ghalia grieving wildly. What happened? A grotesque exploitation of grief." This is one more example of what is likely another "PallyWood" production, designed to incite hate and bloody vengeance against Israelis and Jews --- who, according to the evidence, had nothing whatsoever to do with this tragedy. Yet the MSM and certain "news" websites fell for this libel hook, line and sinker, and once again cast Israel as barbarians --- a narrative that has carried forth to this day, while not even caring to take a "second" look at the facts, as documented by Second Draft: (3) "Icon Of Hatred" - The al Dura blood libel (17:30) In this video, Second Draft provides a detailed look inside the blood libel that caused untold numbers of grisly murders of, and worldwide protests against Israelis and Jews, thanks to the lies propagated by Palestinians in Gaza. In summary, a 10 year old boy, Mohammed al Dura, was reportedly shot and killed by his father's side, amidst a firefight between Hamas and the IDF. Palestinian "news" sources immediately claimed that al Dura was shot by the IDF. A French "journalist" edited together the raw footage to make it appear that this was the case, and testified to it under oath. The global media --- without even doing a cursory investigation into the footage, knowing how often such media from Palestinian sources is proven to be faked --- uncritically echoed this narrative. As is documented in the following video, however, the evidence points not to Israeli soldiers, but to Palestinians themselves, and one "journalist" in particular --- for whatever happened to this boy. (4) "Al Dura: 'According To Palestinian Sources...' II" (13:53) A step-by-step analysis by Second Draft, documenting the lies, the manipulation, the gross incompetence of the French news bureau, and the complicity of the global media in propagating this blood libel, that triggered years of celebrated hatred and violence against Israelis and Jews worldwide.
For more information on certain members of the "news" media's uncritical acceptance and willful propagation of Palestinian "fauxtography" and blood libels against Israelis ("PallyWood") --- and the "conservative" blogosphere's efforts to establish the truth --- please see a detailed essay by Richard Landes, Writer-Director at Second Draft, here.
(5) "Al Dura: What Really Happened?" (3:28) This short film, produced by Honest Reporting, showcases some of the facts that fatally undermine the Palestinians' (and a French "journalist's") claims that Mohammed al Dura was shot by Israeli soldiers.
7/13/08: News Blackout -- NYT Ignores Momentous Pro-Jewish Court Case Win in France --- NewsBusters examines the French court decision to throw out the PallyWood fauxtographer's libel case against a journalist who reported the truth regarding the al Dura incident --- and asks why the New York Times, which breathlessly and uncritically reported the Palestinians' blood libels against Israel, is now reluctant to report on the truth.
For more information, see the Wikipedia entry on the al Dura shooting (or hoax), which also discusses an epic lawsuit in France concerning this controversy. For your own sanity, however, please pay particular attention to the sources cited, and not necessarily all the narrative (as Wikipedia can be edited by those outside its organization, who may or may not be interested in the truth).
8/16/06: Fauxtography: The Media Scandal Continues by Michelle Malkin, TownHall.com; analysis of Hezbollah and Palestinian propaganda, accepted uncritically by the Western MSM; more on Malkin's video blog here.
5/13/08: 'Dead Gazan' Alive And Kicking by Y'Net; excerpt: "Muhammad al-Harrani, a father of six from Gaza diagnosed with cancer who reportedly died while waiting for a permit to enter Israel, miraculously 'came back to life'."
9/9/08: Reuters Spread Hamas Propaganda With Fake Power Outage Photos by Warner Todd Huston at StinkyJournalism.org; the second time this year that Hamas pulled "candlelight" fakery (see first one here). Also, see one example of this potential "candelight" hoax that HuffPost picked up on at bottom.
1/4/09: Apologies: Video Of Carnage In Gaza Market Is A Hoax by Uruknet.info; a detailed description of how a propaganda video from 2005, containing a blood libel against Israel, had been dusted off and was being used in a current incident.
2/18/09: Hamas’ Lies about Gaza Fatalities Unmasked by P. David Hornik at PajamasMedia.com. Another debunking of the lies about civilian vs. Hamas terrorist deaths during Operation Cast Lead.
left-wing news, it's the news. And that will be the sensibility, that will basically permeate our news coverage.”
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