Since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, Gaza-based activists, posing as journalists, have continued to flood international media with fake and staged images. The German newspapers Bild-Zeitung and Süddeutsche Zeitung exposed one such ‘photojournalist,’ whose work has been picked up by leading German and Western news outlets, including The Times magazine and CNN.
Anas Zayed Fteiha, a freelance “journalist” commissioned by Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, has been spreading ‘Hamas propaganda’ by taking ‘staged’ photographs depicting supposed misery and suffering in Gaza, Germany’s most-read daily Bild-Zeitung reported this week.
Media outlets across the world have been publishing his staged and orchestrated images, holding them up as proof that people in Gaza are facing a dire humanitarian crisis due to Israel’s military operation to liberate hostages and eliminate Hamas’ terrorist fighting force.
One such staged photograph by Fteiha landed on the Time magazine’s cover, accompanied by a story titled ‘The Gaza Tragedy.”
The Bild-Zeitung reported Tuesday:
Emaciated children, desperate mothers, and people with empty bowls begging for food: These photos from Gaza are circulating the world. They emote millions—and influence global politics.But an investigation by the Süddeutsche Zeitung is now questioning the veracity of these images: Were some of the photos from Gaza intentionally staged – and are part of a propaganda strategy by Hamas terrorists?The hunger is (almost always) real – but the pictures are not. A photograph circulated widely in recent [days] showed desperate people on a truck in front of a food distribution center. Opposite them: photographer Anas Zayed Fteiha, a freelance “journalist” commissoned by the Turkish news agency Anadolu. (…)His photos—published by [German magazine] Stern and The New York Magazine, CNN and the BBC, [Germany’s state-run broadcaster] Deutschlandfunk, [German daily] Junge Welt, and even the Bild Zeitung—prefer to depict chaos and destruction. And above all, children, mothers, and suffering in close-ups, and with perfect lighting.Indeed, the suffering of civilians in Gaza is great. Many have been killed in Hamas’s war against Israel, and many are starving. However, the staging of this misery often benefits Hamas and its propaganda.(…) “journalist” Fteiha seems to have a mission: “Free Palestine.” This is what it says on a grotesque painting [self-portrait] he posted on his Instagram account—in combat gear with the proud inscription “Press.” The “artist” who created the image for Fteiha is an avowed Jew-hater.Another video is captioned “F**k Israel.” No wonder, since Fteiha is also active in “europe.palestine.network”, a “pro-Palestinian Collective” for “Global Action in Europe” – which not only documents the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza but also promotes international “resistance” against Israel.An activist, masquerading as a photographer and video joirnalist, on behalf of a news agency that reports directly to the Turkish President and Israel-hater Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (…), who in turn has promoted, financed, and sheldered Hamas terrorists for years.The only question is: Why do German and international agencies use the photos by such baised agitator, even though many of the images are obviously one-sidedly selected or staged?Bild Zeitung contacted photo agencies. The German Press Agency and Agence France Press stated that they would not cooperate with the “journalist” Fteiha and that they would carefully review the images of other photojournalists and their reputations before publication. (…)(…) In Gaza, Palestinian photographers are now taking photographs almost exclusively – many of them links to Hamas. Historian and photography expert Gerhard Paul told the Süddeutsche Zeitung: “In southern Gaza, Hamas controls 100 percent of image production.” The aim is to generate sympathy in the West and stir up anger against Israel.And it works! Hardly anyone is more adept at propaganda than Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups (…).
The problem is not limited to a few rogue Hamas-linked journalists. Palestinians have an entire industry dedicated to fabricating and disseminating fake statistics, imagery, and news. These Pallywood lies travel halfway around the world before the truth even has a chance to put on its proverbial shoes.
The Hamas ‘Health Ministry,’ which otherwise specializes in sheltering terrorists and hoarding weapons in hospitals, has been issuing inflated casualty numbers, which are published by the mainstream media as credible figures.
After the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation began distributing food directly to Gaza residents, pushing Hamas out of the billion-dollar United Nations-led ‘aid business,’ the mainstream media has been flooded with false claims of famine and scarcity in the enclave. A recently published investigative report shows how mainstream media have been peddling Hamas’ narrative, peppering their reports with sources linked to Palestinian terrorist groups.
Even the data compiled by the UN shows that famine and misery in Gaza are of Hamas’s own making. Since mid-May, Palestinian terrorists have looted or hijacked close to 90 percent of all aid trucks entering Gaza, recent UN figures disclose.
Hamas is deliberately creating a food crisis in areas under its control. “There is some hunger in Gaza, and it exists only in places Hamas is pursuing it, not in other areas,” Professor Eytan Gilboa (Reichman University, Herzliya) told Israeli news agency TPS recently.
[Excerpts from German media reports translated by the author]
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