Misplaced Pages

Pallywood

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by ChrisO~enwiki (talk | contribs) at 22:38, 6 March 2008 (You still don't get it - please see your talk page). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 22:38, 6 March 2008 by ChrisO~enwiki (talk | contribs) (You still don't get it - please see your talk page)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
The neutrality of this article is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Pallywood, a portmanteau of "Palestinian" and "Hollywood", is a controversial neologism that, according to the Jerusalem Post, pro-Israel media-watchdog advocates have used to refer to the Muhammad al-Durrah incident as an example of "media manipulation, distortion and outright fraud by the Palestinians ... designed to win the public relations war against Israel." It has been publicised by a campaign led in part by Boston University academic Richard Landes, who has produced an online documentary video called Pallywood: According to Palestinian Sources, highlighting specific instances of alleged media manipulation.

Richard Landes' video

File:Pallywood cover.jpg
Pallywood: According to Palestinian Sources... an online documentary by Richard Landes.

In 2005, Professor Richard Landes of Boston University produced an 18-minute online documentary video called Pallywood: According to Palestinian Sources. Landes and other pro-Israel advocates argue that the Israeli government is insufficiently robust in countering Palestinian accounts of events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In his video, Landes shows Arab-Israeli conflict-related footage that was taken mostly by freelance Palestinian video journalists. He argues that systematic media manipulation (which he dubs "Pallywood") dates back to at least the 1982 Lebanon War, and argues that broadcasters are too uncritical of the veracity of Palestinian freelance footage. He focuses in particular on the case of Muhammad al-Durrah, a 12-year-old Palestinian who was widely reported to have been killed by Israeli gunfire in the Gaza Strip on September 30 2000 at the beginning of the Second Intifada. The shooting was filmed by a Palestinian freelance cameraman and aired on the France 2 television channel with narration by the veteran French-Israeli journalist Charles Enderlin, who was not present at the incident. It made worldwide headlines and the conduct of the Israel Defence Forces was heavily criticized intenationally, severely damaging Israel's public standing on the world stage. Landes questions the authenticity of the footage and disputes whether al-Durrah was killed at all, arguing that the entire incident was staged by the Palestinians. He asserts that the incident shows that "Palestinian cameramen, especially when there are no Westerners around, engage in the systematic staging of action scenes."

Wider use of the term

Similar allegations have been made by other media analysts, particularly after similar assertions of media manipulation (dubbed "Hezbollywood" by some) were made during the 2006 Lebanon War.

The Mackenzie Institute, a Canadian defense and security think tank, has argued that given "a long history of posing for the cameras...the cynical "Pallywood" nickname from once-deceived journalists for news services becomes understandable."

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ "Caught in the Mohammad al-Dura crossfire", Jerusalem Post, October 12, 2007:
    : But pro-Israel media-watchdog advocates have gone further, arguing that the footage is a prime example of what has been dubbed "Pallywood" (em. added)
  2. ^ Cambanis, Thanassis. "Some Shunning The Palestinian Hard Stance" The Boston Globe, September 6, 2005
  3. Landes, Richard. Pallywood, According to Palestinian Sources (Windows Media Video), SecondDraft.org. (youtube mirror)
  4. ^ Carvajal, Doreen. "The mysteries and passions of an iconic video frame", International Herald Tribune, Monday, February 7, 2005.
  5. Landes, Richard. "Pallywood: History", SecondDraft.org.
  6. "Al-Durah: What happened?", SecondDraft.org
  7. 'Im Zweifel für den Zweifel,' Der Tagesspiegel 2006-08-09]
  8. 'Hezbollywood? Evidence mounts that Qana collapse and deaths were staged' (israelinsider)
  9. Zerbisias, Antonia. "And Now It's Reutersgate". Toronto Star, August 9, 2006.
  10. Gelernter, David. "When pictures lie", Jewish World Review, 2003.
  11. Photo of Palestinian Boy Kindles Debate in France, The New York Times, February 7, 2005.
  12. Frum, David. From Gaza, tragedy and propaganda. National Post, June 17, 2006.
  13. Michael Doxtater, "How the Mohawks look at history", Globe and Mail, 11 July 1991, A17; "Mail bombs spark public warning", Kitchener-Waterloo Record, 20 July 1995, A3; Geoff Baker, "Who's behind mail-bomb plot?", Toronto Star, 30 July 1995, A2; "Tamils protest paper's story", Toronto Star, 13 February 2000, p. 1; Rob Faulkner, "Institute offers anti-terrorism tip sheet", Hamilton Spectator, 10 August 2005, A6.
  14. Lies, Damned Lies and Footage, The Mackenzie Institute, Newsletter July, 06.

Further reading

Categories: