Pallywood: The Room Was Empty

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December 15, 2010 • Volume 28 • Winter 2011

By Abraham Havis

As of September 2009, there were 1.73 billion Internet users worldwide. Disseminating news is now easier
than it has ever been. But, like any medium, the Internet can be used for good or for evil. The plethora of Palestinian propaganda, known as Pallywood, that has been growing over the last three decades, is a prime example of the latter.

Having conducted extensive research on propaganda use in historical periods such as the Nazi era, Boston University Professor Richard Landes has dedicated much time to examining Palestinian news footage. Scot Macdonald's book, Propaganda and Information Warfare in the Twenty-First Century, while not focusing specifically on the example of Palestine, similarly exposes several problems that the information age has brought to news media. While Landes' emphasis is on staged videos, Macdonald focuses on altered photos. It is not solely the viewers who fall victim to propaganda; news outlets and journalists themselves rarely ask the origins of footage, who shot it, and most importantly, whether or not it was altered. Reuters, the largest news organization in the world, frequently relies on freelance journalists with few references and even less credibility.

On November 12th, 2000, 60 Minutes aired a segment called "The Crossroad." Viewers were shown "Martyr's Junction" (Netzarim settlement) where 30 Palestinians were allegedly killed and hundreds wounded in a battle with Israelis (who are never seen on screen). This segment introduces Landes' 18-minute You Tube video, "Pallywood: According to Palestinian Sources." He begins by examining the 60 Minutes segment which was viewed by millions and unequivocally accepted as an accurate portrayal of news. Macdonald concurs that propagands is such a powerful tool because it is always presented as documenting reality; distinguishing fact from fiction, fantasy, or fabrication will therefore always he a challenge.

When the footage was released by Palestinian cameramen "working independently, employed and equipped by Western news agencies", few questioned its authenticity. However, there are several specific instances in the filming that Landes analyses which bear mentioning.

The first is of a man being shot, falling and clutching his leg. As if on cue, a Palestinian ambulance pulls up in a matter of seconds. A second camera, depicts three men dragging their wounded counterpart quite a distance to the ambulance, odd given that they were allegedly under fire. Landes identifies another anomaly, where a man, upon being shot, fails to exhibit any blood or apparent gunshot wound, and appears remarkably calm for someone who had just heen caught in crossfIre. One could ascertain from such anomalies that such a scene was staged.

Another segment shows a civilian fIring an AKA7 into a hole in the wall of an Israeli building. Again, the scene is revealed as being staged. Earlier that day, viewers see the man talking to soldiers, apparently giving them orders, with Palestinians casually entering and exiting the hole in the wall. By only showing the brief moment of supposed intense conflict of soldiers lining up against the wall, it appears that the Palestinians are under fIre when, in fact, the room was empty.

A final segment takes place in the Northern event West Bank, showing an Israeli reconnaissance air plane filming Palestinians bringing a deceased member on a bier to mass graves where Israelis have allegedly massacred hundreds of Palestinians. An accidental tipping of the bier results in the corpse rolling off onto the ground. Following this fall, the corpse miraculously climbs back on.

The most well-publicized news story in the realm of Pallywood is arguably the case of the death of twelve-year-old Muhammad ai-Durrah filmed by Talal Abu Rahma, a Palestinian reporter for France 2 News. It was later exposed that the whole event was constructed, that bullets were never recovered, and that father and son walked away soon after the camera stopped rolling.

Pallywood is clearly a thriving industry. It has directors, actors, extras who pretend to be dead or injured, and ambulances that always arrive seconds after an incident. Onlookers who rush to help the "injured" are often more rough than would be warranted for treatment of the wounded, such as dragging a gunshot victim across a street (which would only worsen injuries in real life). As Landes argues, Pallywood aims to simplify a very complicated conflict, maximizing the pathos and sensationalization of media, and capitalizing on viewers' assumptions of journalistic accuracy and integrity in order to elicit greater sympathy towards Palestinians