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Revision as of 11:05, 3 January 2006 by Virago (talk | contribs) (Edited for POV)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Pallywood is a derogatory term used by some supporters of the State of Israel to describe allegations of propaganda in video journalism by Palestinian activists. The alegation is that events are staged by Palestinian cameramen and video teams, sometimes using equipment from Western news agencies, and the resulting footage sent on to those agencies. Newsmakers in the USA and Europe are likewise alleged to have taken certain footage, edited it out of context, and presented it to their viewers.
This allegation reflects the importance for both sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict of winning the "media war" by providing journalists with imagery that presents only their side of the story in the conflict.
Examples include:
- allegations that riots and unrest that did not start until the press arrived
- alleged falsification of the death of Muhammad al-Durrah in September, 2000
- allegedly staged photographs following the battle of Jenin in 2002
- allegedly staged funeral processions and casualties
The American historian Richard Landes, who describes himself as a "pro-Israel leftist", produced a film suggesting that this type of propaganda goes back at least to the war in Lebanon in 1982.
The extent of alleged fakes in the raw footage from conflict submitted to news agencies is a hotly disputed subject, and the degree to which the alleged propaganda from both sides passes through to the viewers is strenuously contested and often remains so after independent corroboration. The impact of video propaganda on public perception in any conflict, in particular on readiness to unquestioningly accept casualty figures from either side, has significant political implications for the ways in which people not directly involved in the conflict think about it. If doubt can be established by one side over the authenticity over certain examples of the other side's video evidence, then future evidence can be more easily be dismissed as fabrication.
The importance of media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is highlighted by the Israeli government's careful attention to video evidence of the conflict that shows Israel in a poor light. When CBC, the national public broadcaster in Canada, aired this video footage of actions by the Israeli army, Israeli spokesman Ranaan Gissin said his government was disappointed by the decision to air the tapes. "I would have expected a little bit more self-censorship on the part of the Israeli media," he said. summary article on the video from CBC.ca
See also
External links
- "Second Draft.org", website of Richard Landes with films and analysis from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- "Palestine: Information with Provenance", website of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign at UCC, with a database of material on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
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