Pallywood

Pallywood, a portmanteau of "Palestine" and "Hollywood", is a derogatory label used to describe supposed media manipulation, distortion or fraud by some Palestinians putatively designed to win the public relations war with Israel. The term came into currency following the killing of Muhammad al-Durrah in 2000 during the Second Intifada, involving a challenge to the veracity of photographic evidence. Israeli pundits have used the term to cast doubt on videos showing Israeli violence or Palestinian suffering.
Richard Landes coined and popularized the term "Pallywood" through his online documentary video titled "Pallywood: According to Palestinian Sources", which exposed alleged instances of media manipulation by Palestinians. Journalist Ruthie Blum defines "Pallywood" as Landes's term for staged productions by Palestinians in collaboration with Western camera crews, aimed at promoting anti-Israel propaganda under the guise of news.
Richard Landes
The term was coined and publicized in part by Richard Landes, as a result of a 2005 online documentary video he produced called Pallywood: According to Palestinian Sources, alleging specific instances of media manipulation. Journalist Ruthie Blum describes "Pallywood" as a term coined by Landes to refer to "productions staged by the Palestinians, in front of (and often with cooperation from) Western camera crews, for the purpose of promoting anti-Israel propaganda by disguising it as news." Landes himself describes Pallywood as "a term I coined... to describe staged material disguised as news."
In Pallywood: According to Palestinian Sources, Landes focuses in particular on the widely publicized killing of Muhammad al-Durrah, a 12-year-old Palestinian boy killed by gunfire (widely reported to have been Israeli gunfire) in the Gaza Strip on September 30, 2000 at the beginning of the Second Intifada. His death was filmed by a Palestinian freelance cameraman and aired on the France 2 television channel. 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. Landes and pro-Israel advocates argue that the Israeli government is insufficiently robust in countering Palestinian accounts of events in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In the 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.
Besides the killing of al-Durrah, Landes cites the Gaza beach blast and Hamas's alleged exploitation of electricity shortages during the 2007–2008 Israel–Gaza conflict, as incidents of Pallywood.
Other uses
Anat Berko, a research fellow with the International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, and Edna Erez, head of the criminal justice department of the University of Illinois at Chicago, say that "the phenomenon of manufacturing documentation about the conflict has been referred to as "Pallywood" (Palestinian Authority Hollywood)." 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 [Palestinian Authority] news services becomes understandable."
The term has been applied beyond the Muhammad al-Durrah case by conservative commentators such as Michelle Malkin and Melanie Phillips.
Canadian columnist Paul Schneidereit has written, "[...] we've seen cases where the bodies of Palestinian martyrs carried on stretchers are inadvertently dropped, then, of their own volition, climb back on again. We’ve seen reports of massacres, as in Jenin in 2002, that turned out, after independent investigation, to have been greatly exaggerated. Needless to say, such episodes don’t instil an abiding trust in subsequent Palestinian claims, at least until they’re verified."
During the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, content involving online influencers mocking victims and claiming that Palestinians are using "crisis actors" became prevalent on social media, with social media users often citing the "Pallywood" term.
Controversies and criticism
Blum suggests that Richard Landes's claims, which are considered quite severe, have led to him being labeled as a right-wing conspiracy theorist in certain circles. Critics argue that Landes's language, which seemingly favors Israel, displays characteristics commonly associated with conspiracy theories.
David Frum alleged that pictures, taking during the 2014 Gaza War, showing two brothers, weeping and with the bloodied T-shirts after carrying the body of their dead father had been faked. The pictures, which were published by Reuters, The New York Times, and Associated Press, had been targeted for criticism by a pro-Israeli blogger. Frum backtracked from his accusation, and apologized to NYT photographer Sergey Ponomarev, after extensive debunking by Michael Shaw, but justified his "skepticism", describing other "Pallywood" claims.
After the death of two Palestinian teenagers in Beitunia, Michael Oren and Israeli official spokesmen argued the video from a security camera was fake or manipulated and the teenagers had only pretended to be hit, a Pallywood view contradicted by both the videos themselves and the official investigation which discovered misconduct by a Border Police officer, who was put on trial for his actions.
In 2014, Larry Derfner described Pallywood in +972 Magazine as "a particularly ugly ethnic slur". In 2018, Eyal Weizman, whose work with Forensic Architecture has been called "Pallywood" in Israel, replied that "The bastards' last line of defence is to call it 'fake news'. The minute they revert to this argument is when they've lost all the others." In an article published by Mondoweiss, Jonathan Cook argued that "Pallywood" was a convenient excuse used by Israelis to dismiss filmed evidence of brutality by their soldiers.
See also
Media coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflict
Deception: Betraying the Peace Process
Peace, Propaganda, & the Promised Land
Décryptage
Relentless: The Struggle for Peace in the Middle East
The Road to Jenin
1983 West Bank fainting epidemic
Israel-related animal conspiracy theories
Public diplomacy of Israel (Hasbara)
References
Criticism of journalism
Gaza Strip
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Mass media in the State of Palestine
Propaganda by topic
News media manipulation
Conspiracy theories