Caught out: Stealing Palestinian images for Israeli causes (updated)
This extraordinary appropriation of Palestinian images by the Israeli Meir Panim organization, picked up by Khalid Amayreh, shows a sinking to new lows. Amid the Haiti hasbara, we now see that even Palestinian child victims of Israeli policies are to be cynically exploited. Are poor Israeli kids’ faces not sufficiently heart-rending or do they display insufficient trauma or suffering?
UPDATE: We have written to Meir Panim about this travesty, suggesting that they withdraw the advertisement and issue a public apology to the family of this little girl for violating her dignity. Better still, perhaps they would consider enlarging their remit to include Palestinian children from the OPT and particularly from Gaza who continue to suffer the debilitating effects of the inhumane Israeli siege and military occupation.
UPDATE II: Meir Panim have replaced the image in their ad campaign (see below) but a public apology to the family of this little girl remains to be seen. They have not responded to date, and given the absence of integrity thus far, we’re not holding our breath.
Khalid Amayreh notes:
The Israeli electronic and print media has been using photos of Palestinian orphans whose parents and relatives have been murdered by the Israeli army in advertisements designed to raise money for “poor and Jewish children.” One photo of a crying, bedraggled and distraught-looking girl is used widely to appeal to potential donors to donate money in order to feed hungry Jewish children.
What is strange about this is that the very same picture happens to be of a Palestinian child whose father was killed in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip during the genocidal Israeli onslaught last year.
Here’s the little girl in a Reuters photograph published in the UK Telegraph and in the Independent:
Here is Meir Panim’s “replacement child”:
UPDATE III New Statesman blogger Mehdi Hasan does well to take up this issue and to ask why the msm haven’t done so; a reader and blogger has suggested in the comments here that it was the little girl’s brother that was killed rather than her father as stated by Amayreh.
Thanks for showing us this machination of meanness to use this little girls tragedy to support crimes against her in perpetuity by comtinuing to take their land, homes, roads, food and lives. Interesting the same week, exposure on the fake benladin picture photoshopped off an unsuspecting Spaniard in public office. My constant prayer, reveal what is concealed so it can be healed. Maybe it is starting to happen, People are connecting the dots. They say that our subconscious is taking in way more than we think we see. What else is going on?
Yes, the zionist entity’s children don’t quite have that authentic look of grief, suffering and horror at being orphaned, destroyed, put under siege and military occupation, so the desired effect must be taken from a Palestinian child.
Zio-scum.
For the country that is built on thievery and deception this is no surprise…
link not working
Perhaps it was down temporarily Malik as its working fine now. Try refreshing your page. You can also read it here.
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http://rainbowwarrior2005.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/us-charity-uses-little-palestinian-childs-photo-to-raise-money-for-israels-hungry/
This is a good link. It works.
Point to correct it was her brother who was killed not her father. Just thought that should be corrected.
Truly deplorable when you realize that the Zionist state was the creator of the little girl’s anguish…
They have no shame and its truly disgusting
It reminds me that war/power addiction must be a bit like drug addiction. A drug addict in L.A. told me that when an alcoholic steals your money, and you ask them if they saw it, they just shrug and say no, but is a drug addict steals from you and you ask them, they fake attention to your plight by jumping right in with all sorts of sympathy and helping you look for the missing money.
What kind of mindset considers human empathy as a tool? Thanks for exposing this manipulation!