14.11.2023 - 09:39 [ Robert Mackey, Open-source, visual investigation and explanatory journalism / Twitter ]

1. I can report that 3 Doctors Without Borders/MSF staff currently at Shifa Hospital said today they‘ve never seen the woman in this apparently fake video which was viewed +12 million times before being deleted from an Israeli gov‘t account. This closely echoes a 2011 hoax …

2. In 2011, the Israeli gov‘t shared a YouTube video by a man who claimed to be an Israeli gay rights activist who said he was discriminated against by Gaza flotilla organizers. The video was exposed as a hoax and @jonronson set out to find the actor in

3. 3. The actor refused to say who made the video but as I reported at the time it was boosted by @DavidSaranga an Israeli diplomat who taught students to promote Israel online with guerrilla marketing. Saranga is now director of digital diplomacy @IsraelMFA.

4. As @marcowenjones reports, the anti-Hamas video supposedly recorded in a Gaza hospital this week was shared by an official Israeli government account for communicating with Arabic speakers — before being deleted amid widespread suspicion that it was fake.