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11-11-2023
JERUSALEM: The Israeli diplomat Ofir Gendelman was flamed on Thursday after he tried to pass off behind-the-scenes footage from a Lebanese short film as proof that Palestinians were faking injuries sustained in Israel’s month-long barrage of airstrikes in Gaza.
Gendelman, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, posted the misleading clip on social media around noon on Thursday. It remained online and unedited by 10 p.m. local time, despite a Twitter community note, hundreds of commenters, a media report, and the film’s director confirming the post was a fake.
In the post, Gendelman shared a video that supposedly proved Palestinians were faking injuries, death, and destruction on camera to garner international support. As he’s done previously, he included the word “Pallywood” to describe what he implied were injuries and evacuations staged to make Israel look bad.
“The Palestinians are fooling the international media and public opinion,” he posted to X, formerly twitter. “DON’T FALL FOR IT. See for yourselves how they fake injuries and evacuating “injured’ civilians, all in front of (sic) cameras. Pallywood gets busted again.”
In reality, the video was a behind-the-scenes clip from a short film that was shot in Lebanon last month. It was 
produced as a tribute to the struggle of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who’ve had their lives uprooted or outright taken after a month of fighting between Israel and Hamas, film director Mahmoud Ramzi shared to his Instagram Story on Thursday.
By Thursday evening, Gendelman’s post had received more than 7,000 likes, a number that paled in comparison to the 22,000 likes received by its top comment, which bluntly said, “It’s from a Lebanese short film you trash bag.”
Gendelman did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on Thursday.
Gendelman is a repeat offender when it comes to peddling misinformation about Palestinians. Just last weekend he shared what he called a “must watch” video of Israeli Defense Force dogs chasing Hamas in tunnels under Gaza, a statement that was quickly disproven by an Israeli journalist, who said the video came from an IDF training session that preceded Israel’s latest war with Hamas. (Int’l News Desk)
