Al-Jazeera has cynically joined the world of Pallywood – the production of videos showing fake injuries (and sometimes fake deaths) of Palestinian Arab civilians as part of the propaganda war against Israel. Recently, the Arab world was awash with reports of Israeli police brutality against Al-Jazeera journalist Givara Budeiri when they apprehended her on June 5. In an interview with Al-Jazeera on June 6, her left arm in a cast, Budeiri describes the violence she endured at the hands of police officers. She claims to have been kicked both on the street and in the car on the way to the police station. When asked how she is, she replies: “I am trying to be okay. They broke my hand. I spent all the night in the hospital. My back hurts me a lot. And here, my hand, from the cuffs, also they hurt so much because the soldiers in the car were tightening it all the time. I have a headache and my leg, I can’t walk very well.” e Unfortunately for those who want to believe the story, it is easy enough to debunk using Al-Jazeera’ s own video footage from another report click ( https://fb.watch/6048lE2rDK/ ) posted earlier that same day. In this report of her release hours after having been taken in for questioning, we can see her freely lifting up her children who came to meet her, using her left hand quite vigorously when explaining how the Israelis are trying to muzzle Al-Jazeera reporting, and walking down the steps from the station to the street. Below are screenshots of the incriminatory portions of their report of her release, which will forever be available for comparison with her later claims of the police having broken her arm and her difficulty walking.- even if the video linked of her release (on Facebook) above is removed. Arab journalist freed Al Jazeera Journalist's hand not broken All Jazeera freed journalist no signs of violence Al Jazeera While photos demonstrating alleged injuries of adults can be compelling, images of children are even more so. In a report, the New York Times showed thumbnails of 67 Arab and 2 Israeli children killed during the latest round of hostilities between Hamas and the Israel Defense Forces. An examination of the photos , however, reveals that one of the children died in circumstances unrelated to the conflict, two of the so-called children were actually proven to have been combatants (one aged 20 and one 16), and at least eight of the children were killed when missiles aimed for Israeli cities fell short and landed on their own population centers. The social media promotes much fake news (click the link to meet Sophie, who was reported as Malek) such as the use of an image of a young Russian girl claiming she is a casualty of Israeli bombing of Gaza. Now, as in the past, photos of children from war-torn regions of Pakistan or Syria have been published as if they are children killed by Israel. In the case of the report on Givara Budeiri, it appears that Al-Jazeera is not reporting on the news, but “making the news”, as did those reporters saying "we are dne with reporting objectively on Palestinian Arab-Israeli conflict" - something that, unsurprisingly, David Lange of Israellycool found contravened one item (among many) on the Washington Post Code of Ethics for Journalism: “Although it has become increasingly difficult in an Internet age, reporters should make every effort to remain in the audience, to be the stagehand rather than the star, to report the news, not to make the news.” [emphasis added by Lange].
