GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War Day 671

Disdain For Pallywood

Pallywood Again

I’ve documented over and over again the propaganda that Hamas is vomiting out to make us think that Gaza is in a state of acute starvation. Of course I’ve also shown you that the photos of starving children are suffering from ailments not associated with lack of food as the uncropped pictures show healthy children and hardly impoverished parents in the same room. And now a German news site exposes one photojournalist who is staging these pictures to make us think that children are starving as we read from report from The Jerusalem Post:

There has been significant media attention over the last few days regarding reports by two German-language papers - BILD and Süddeutsche Zeitung - that accuse Gaza-based press photographers of staging photos of starving civilians.

As I mentioned previously this isn’t the first time staged photos were used:

The issue of staged photos or photos taken out of context came to a head at the end of July when the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said that a picture of a Gazan youth being portrayed as starving is actually suffering from a genetic disease.

One photo in particular is being used to make the starvation narrative seem real:

The BILD report focuses on a widely circulated photo of desperate Gazan women and children holding pots and pans in front of a food distribution site.

The problem? It was totally staged:

Except photos taken by others at the same site show that the hoard is actually standing opposite freelance photographer Anas Zayed Fteiha, commissioned by the Turkish news agency Anadolu, BILD argues. The pots and pans are not being held up to the food distribution site, but the photographer, which Bild claims is staging for means of propaganda.

The German news site says that what really happened isn’t being shown:

Additionally, BILD adds that his photos at the Gaza aid distribution site show mainly women and children, but that other photos at the same site show mostly adult men calmly waiting for and receiving food. Fteiha did not distribute these ones.

An expert on photography weighs in on the photos:

"I assume that many of these pictures with starving and sick children are simply staged or come from other contexts," emeritus history professor and photography expert Gerhard Paul told SZ.

Paul, who has been researching images from Israel and Gaza for 25 years, said the photos are not fake, but "people are presented in a certain way or provided with a falsifying caption to mobilize our visual memory and emotions."

Not What It Seems

Paul did more than look at the images:

Paul told SZ that he and his students at the University of Flensburg recreated the scenes from images of various wars in three dimensions in order to understand the situation depicted, which is often not easy to understand from the two-dimensional image.

"Where is the photographer? Who is standing around him?" he asks. "What do the people depicted in the picture see? Do they see what we suspect, for example a food distribution? Or are they facing photographers?"

He then said what we all know or should know about Hamas and photo propaganda:

"The images also have an additional function," Paul explained. "They are intended to overwrite the brutal images of the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Many people don't even remember these pictures. Hamas is a master at staging images."

Having unbiased sources in Gaza isn’t safe:

However, he stressed that the journalists and photographers in Gaza are in a dangerous position, and due to their proximity to Hamas terrorists, cannot move freely. "Little bypasses Hamas," Christopher Resch of Reporters Without Borders told SZ.

He doesn’t necessarily have an issue with staged photos but within limits:

Resch also told SZ that the concept of photographers staging photos is not unique to Gaza, and is not necessarily problematic.

"I don't think it's reprehensible when a photographer instructs people to stand here and there with their pots," he said. "As long as it approximates reality."

And that’s the issue here. This photographer is hardly objective:

Nevertheless, BILD's report stressed that the photographer in question - Fteiha - is not exactly unbiased in his photojournalism. He posts videos to social media saying "f*** Israel" and works for a news agency that speaks directly to the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who has had ties to Hamas.

The Germans aren’t going to use his photos, but others aren’t so discerning:

As a result of the investigation, the German Press Agency and Agence France Press told BILD that they will no longer work Fteiha and would carefully check the pictures of other photo reporters as well, whereas Reuters says his photos "meet the standards of accuracy, independence and impartiality."

As we should expect, Israel has some strong comments about others using his pictures:

"Despite his bias, his photos are published by major outlets like CNN, BBC, and Reuters," Israel's foreign ministry seethed in its response to the two reports.

"With Hamas controlling nearly all media in Gaza, these photographers aren’t reporting, they’re producing propaganda."

The Israeli source also added this:

"This investigation underscores how Pallywood has gone mainstream with staged images and ideological bias shaping international coverage, while the suffering of Israeli hostages and Hamas atrocities are pushed out of frame," the ministry concluded.

Another Response

This report isn’t the only place to call out this devious tactic. There are a few others starting with this post from the Telegram channel of Amir Tsarfati, an Israeli author and speaker who served in the Israel Defense Force (IDF):

Gaza has it’s very own HUNGER GAMES SET meticulosly designed and tightly run by a professional photographer and known Israel-hater Anas Bayed Fteiha who manages multiple filming crews on site. To be precise it is a set staging „WATER GAMES“ CASTED ARE GIRLS AND BOYS ONLY. A VERY SPECIFIC TYPECAST of gaunt children and bringing its own shabby buckets is a requirement, a lunch is provided, and some participants are reportedly paid. Making misery a mockery.

Tsarfati references the same German expose adding his own perspective:

Today BILD, German paper, EXPOSES the secret truth behind the reappearing images of water-seeking girls in Gaza, already published with ZERO research by TIME. Investigation reveals behind the photographs there is an entire set. Stationed the key-feature the concrete wall, it is rather elaborate with a built-in camera-ladder sitting atop is a sliding state-of-art cameras that ferry back and forth searching for and filming perfect face at a perfect angel - like sex, desperation in Gaza sells. Multiple images produced at this specific set were bought and printed worldwide Times Magazine, Stern Magazine Corp and New York Magazine, needless to say by the CNN and BBC and Deutschlandfunk in Germany. Then BILD who hesitated upon identifying same images, set-featured and TYPECAST launched its own investigation blowing the lid of the entire set, professional crews and the ring-leader self-proclaimed Israel-hater professions photographer Anas Bayed Fteiha. So much for journalistic integrity.

He has a justified disdain for this propagandist’s boss:

Don’t forget who hired this digital terrorist: The Turkish Anadolu agency - a mouthpiece of the Turkish government that engages in propaganda!

Turkey is no friend of Israel and is one of coalition of nations coming against them in the War of Gog and Magog seen in the book of Ezekiel. And of course we know that the Israel will be hard to deal with in the end times as seen in Zechariah 12:3:

And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it. (NKJV)

Which is a strong reason to pray for the peace of Jerusalem as the world continues to come against her.