Photo of soldier pointing gun at girl prompts Facebook outcry

[oberliner]

A viral photograph on Facebook showing a soldier pointing a weapon at a young girl managed to anger more than a few Israelis this past week.

The photo shows a helpless girl laying on the floor while a soldier, whose face is out of frame, has his boot pressed to her stomach, all the while pointing an AK-47 rifle to her face.

The photograph, which was uploaded by a Facebook user named Wesley Muhammad, included a caption which said that soldier in the photo was from the Israel Defense Forces, and the little girl was a Palestinian.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/photo-of-soldier-pointing-gun-at-girl-prompts-facebook-outcry-1.410477

[PDJane]

1. The photo may be a fake.

But there are a lot of palestinian children missing eyes and parts of their jaw....thanks, IDF.

[movonne]

2. What is going on in our own country (Oakland police good example) I

to believe that it could be very true...

[oberliner]

3. There is no maybe about it

And sadly there are lots of children around the world with injuries (and worse) via the armed forces of numerous countries.

Passing off faked photos to score political points does no one any good.

[azurnoir]

7. "Passing off faked photos to score political points does no one any good."

well apparently it did some 'good' or else why would you have posted the thread?

[oberliner]

8. Posted the thread in case anyone saw the photo and thought it was real

Not sure how widely disseminated it was initially.

[azurnoir]

10. oh that's why aha thanks n/t

[azurnoir]

11. IMO you have little fear about him being taken seriously : here is Wesley Muhammad on Facebook

Here is a sampling of another post on his Facebook page

The Aryanization of Islam that gave the world the fictitious ruddy-white Muhammad also gave the world the immaterial, formless Allah.

Thus, both the White Prophet Muhammad and Spook God Allah are hallmarks of White Supremacy's triumph within Islam.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Wesley-Muhammad/741979104


The "The Aryanization of Islam"!?!! now I think I've heard it all

BTW it should be noted he is an American and a member of The Nation of Islam which is Farrakhan's group and is not recognized by either Shi'a or Sunni Muslim', he's also a nut job IMO

[oberliner]

12. I wish you were right

In spite of the initial poster, the hoax photo was disseminated to other places and passed off as legitimate.

Progressives sites like 972mag acknowledge the importance of debunking such photos in their article on the subject.

http://972mag.com/whats-wrong-with-this-pic-that-its-fake/34420/

Note this comment:

These images–which many of my fellow leftist friends have circulated in ernest–fuel the Pro-Israel defensiveness (They lie about us!). (And I have some of those friends, too–I’ve seen it used this way as well). Thank you, Noam, for recognizing that if we are going to be among those sounding the Wake-Up Call alarm, we must keep it real and fight for all kind of truth over propaganda. And we must be careful about what we circulate and where we shine a light: we can hurt our own/humanity’s cause by focussing not only on what’s false, but even on what’s freak (the most racist Israeli’s tattoo… the worst army t-shirt ever, which may or may not be authentic…). We are at such a tipping point right now–let’s be very intentional.

[azurnoir]

13. actually your article points out how quickly the picture was recognized as a fake and by Leftists

that is because the picture is quite old and has been circulated before and was then recognized a fake by Leftists, it is only now apparently that the ProIsrael crowd has stepped in and claimed victory of some sort, guess they were unaware the first time around?

[oberliner]

14. 972mag are not "the proIsrael crowd"

And as you should have noted from the comment, this image was something:

"which many of my fellow leftist friends have circulated in ernest (sic)"

I think you are right that it had a go round a while back, was debunked, but then saw another wave hit in recent weeks/months.

This is not unusual - sadly, people remember seeing the image, but not always the debunkinh.

Not everyone is as internet-savvy as we.

[azurnoir]

18. Nor did I state that 972mag was ProIsrael

what I stated was the picture had been previously circulated and had apparently flown under the radar of the ProIsrael crowd until yesterday when it reappeared on Facebook

[oberliner]

19. The two articles I posted are from Ha'aretz and 972mag

They are reporting on the fact that this photo had been flying around lately - and that it was fake.

[azurnoir]

20. from your own 972mag link

I saw this picture for the first time a few months ago; at the time someone said it was taken from a Turkish TV show. In the last few days, it’s circulating again. And there is this tweet, claiming this picture was taken in Syria. Where will it pop up next?

http://972mag.com/whats-wrong-with-this-pic-that-its-fake/34420/

the ProIsrael crowd did not care the first time because other Arab countries were being falsely blamed

[holdencaufield]

9. Fake but accurate? NT

[MidwestTransplant]

4. IDF doesn't use AK47s

[oberliner]

5. The photo is a fake

That's the point of the article.

[Ruby the Liberal]

6. According to the link, the original image was taken in Bahrain.

[oberliner]

15. Yeah - some kind of staged even in protest of Israel

The "soldier" has an Israel flag safety-pinned to his jacket it looks like when you see the full photo.

[sabbat hunter]

17. although the picture is a fake

and not even a very good fake, I am sure there will be groups that will use it to promote violence against Israel (Hamas, IJ, Hezbollah, etc)