Israeli Public Exposes Facebook Photo Hoax
- This photo was posted to Facebook with a caption that indicated that the soldier was Israeli and the child, Palestinian.
The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz is reporting that in a calculated effort to give the State of Israel a proverbial black-eye, a Facebook user, Wesley Muhammad, elected to post this picture to his page with a misleading caption. In the photo, a soldier is pressing his boot against the chest of child laying on the ground; the soldiers gun is pointed at the frightened child’s head.
In the caption, Muhammed intentionally misidentified the soldier as a member the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the small child as being Palestinian. The photo instantly went viral. People the world over expressed outrage and demanded to know more about the incident and the status of the two subjects.
Lot’s of people in Israel were also angered by the photo: angry and sure that the caption wasn’t telling the truth. It didn’t take much detective work to figure out that Muhammed had lied about what the picture was actually showing. Israelis quickly identified a number of problems: the uniform of the soldier is not the kind issued by the IDF; the gun the soldier is holding is not used by Israeli soldiers. Many Israelis also pointed out that the crowd watching the incident is making no effort to help the girl. Palestinians would never, ever, let an Israeli soldier do what this soldier is doing to a child without trying to interfere.
With all this evidence piling up, it didn’t take long for someone to find the original picture and determine the real-story: An Arab blogger, wanting to expose the inhumanity of Bahrain monarchy which has been confronting in it own version of the “Arab Spring,” posted the picture to his blog following demonstrations in that Gulf nation.
- Some of the “problems” with the photo that were quickly identified.
- The actual, un-cropped photo showing a Bahrainian soldier tormenting a Bahrainian little girl.
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Author: Mitchell S. Gilbert
Mitch Gilbert is a social worker, writer, and religious educator. A native of Brooklyn, New York, he has done community development work in Washington DC, Cleveland, Akron, Vancouver, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. Mitch earned a BA at Brooklyn College (CUNY), a Master of Science in Social Administration degree from Case Western Reserve University. In addition, Mitch has done graduate studies in Jewish tradition, history, and culture at New York University and the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Mitch is actively involved with the Democratic Party and progressive causes and organizations that advance human rights and protect animals and the environment. He currently resides in Bexley, Ohio.
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