By Suzanne Bowdey

A picture is worth a thousand misconceptions — at least where the conflict in Gaza is concerned. In the war behind the war, the sweeping campaign of anti-Israel disinformation, Palestinian sympathizers are working overtime in the media to warp and shift public opinion about what’s actually happening. So far, it’s worked. World leaders, all-too eager to make the Jewish state the bully, have latched onto the heart-wrenching images of starving, pained, or wounded women and children. But how much of it is real? An investigation from two German newspapers insists: not much.

Turns out, the shot from a camera can inflict as much damage as the shot from a gun. Carefully manipulated images have become a cottage industry in the last two years of the Israel-Hamas war, dangerously turning global sentiment against the victim of the gruesome terrorist attack of 2023. And one activist photographer seems to be making an outsized contribution to the number of controversial pictures, German newspapers Süddeutsche Zeitungand BILD warn.

Anas Zayed Fteiah, whose images are routinely picked up by major U.S. and international outlets, is being accused of staging photos to evoke sympathy for the Palestinians. In one of the most egregious examples, Fteiah’s emotional depiction of a group of pleading women, desperately holding out empty bowls where food should be, was splashed across Time Magazine’s August 1 cover with the headline, “The Gaza Tragedy.”

The reality, other reporters on the ground revealed, is vastly different. Photos from the same location showed lines of men “calmly receiving food” in the hours when distribution was regularly scheduled. The Süddeutsche Zeitung article blasted the lack of journalistic integrity that makes it difficult to draw reasonable conclusions about the war, noting that “at least some of the images were presented in a false or misleading context.” 

Breitbart translated portions of the investigative findings, which acknowledge that while there’s legitimate hunger in the region, “the images are often not [real].” Why? “Because ‘journalist’ Fteiha apparently has a mission: ‘Free Palestine.’ This is what it says on a bombastic painting he presents on his Instagram account — in combat gear with the proud inscription ‘Presse.’ The ‘artist’ who created the image for Fteiha is an avowed Jew-hater.”

The piece goes on to explain, “In the Gaza Strip, almost exclusively Palestinian photographers are now taking photographs — quite a few with Hamas connections. Historian and photography expert Gerhard Paul told the Süddeutsche Zeitung: ‘In southern Gaza, Hamas controls 100 percent of image production.’ The goal: to generate sympathy in the West and stir up anger against Israel.”

Reaction to the German bombshells has been harsh. “Today it was revealed that this TIME photo from Gaza was completely staged — a total fake,” conservative contributor Eyal Yakoby raged. “But they published it anyway. Because when it comes to Gaza, basic journalistic standards no longer apply.” Top Israeli officials have been horrified, but not surprised. President Isaac Herzog compared Fteiha’s photo to the emaciated hostages Evyatar David and Rom Braslavski to show how twisted the narrative has become.

“The U.N. is holding hundreds of trucks, almost 800 trucks, [that it could use to distribute aid] and is failing to distribute,” Herzog explained, pointing the finger at the true culprit of any Palestinian suffering: Hamas. “Instead of that, we see a PR campaign like this one revealed in a German newspaper. You see a photographer staging Gaza people to show that they are lacking food. This is staged. We don’t shy away from the humanitarian need to help the people of Gaza, but we ask the world not to fall for the lies.” 

Caroline Glick, who was a senior contributing editor to the Jewish News Syndicate before serving as international affairs advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is continually appalled at the lack of any intellectual curiosity about the facts.

“I think it’s pretty amazing that the international community, the Western media — the places that we all go to find the facts — have been presenting Hamas lies as fact, really, since … October 7th.” She ticked off a list of debunked headlines on “Washington Watch,” everything from “Israel is indiscriminately bombing Gaza” and “Israel is targeting civilians” to “Israel is causing a famine.” “And none of this was remotely true,” she argued. “It’s Hamas that’s responsible for all the suffering that has happened to the people of Israel and to the people of Gaza since October 7th. And today, as has been the case throughout the war, Israel is not starving the people of Gaza. Israel is not denying vital humanitarian aid, particularly food and medicines, to the people of Gaza.”

On the contrary, she and several officials on the scene have explained, “There have been over 94 million tons of food delivered to Gaza since the outset of the war. That’s about 3,200 calories per person per day.” Even so, CBN’s Chris Mitchell interjects, “I don’t think anybody disputes the fact that there is hunger in Gaza, and there’s a problem of getting aid. But what happens is that much of this aid that comes into Gaza is stolen and looted by Hamas, hoarded, and then sold back to the Palestinian people at exorbitant rates. They use those to finance their war machine.”

And yet, those realities can’t seem to compete with the dramatized images of women and children concocted by activist journalists. “These photos are very powerful,” Family Research Council’s Casey Harper pointed out on “Washington Watch” last week, when a Gazan child with a genetic disorder was incorrectly pictured as “suffering from malnutrition” by The New York Times. “If you look at history, [a painting of] the Boston Massacre done by Paul Revere actually helped spark the revolution. If you think about other wars, pictures are very powerful. We’re seeing that again here.”

According to Canadian journalist Matti Friedman, who worked for the AP, when Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip 10 years ago, “the AP, along with other news organizations, started censoring their stories according to Hamas instructions.”

Gerhard Paul, who was quoted extensively in the German analysis, insists that not all of the images are “fakes,” but he stresses that “the people are presented in a certain way or given a misleading caption to mobilize our visual memory and our emotions.” Let’s face it, he continued, “The Palestinian side is primarily concerned with emotionalizing Western, pacified societies. And it works brilliantly.” Not to mention, Paul explains, “The images also have an additional function: They are intended to overwrite the brutal images of the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Many people don’t even remember those images anymore. Hamas is a master at staging images.” 

But, as most will point out, this is about a lot more than misleading audiences and increasing Israel’s unpopularity. These images have real-life consequences, which the world saw when countries like France, the U.K., and Canada used photographs like these to help justify their calls for a Palestinian State. “That’s what we had prior to October 7th, in effect. We had Gaza self-governing,” FRC President Tony Perkins observed. “… There was no Israeli involvement whatsoever. And it was nothing more than a launchpad for terrorism.” If the Middle East went down the path that these Western nations are demanding, Mitchell chimed in, it would be “rewarding Hamas for what happened on October 7th and trying to reward the Palestinian Authority.”

All because of this explosion of ill will that’s resulted from the media’s very one-sided storytelling. And a lot of the blame for that belongs at the feet of the U.S. and European outlets and editors who refuse to deal in reality or do the work required to verify these reports. Their not-so-closeted anti-Semitism makes them complicit in the tsunami of hostility facing Israel — which, frankly, is fighting a war that never would have happened if Hamas terrorists hadn’t butchered, gang-raped, tortured, mutilated, burned, and kidnapped 1,200 of their innocent men, women, and children.

Sadly, Harper shook his head, “There’s not a lot of good faith on this issue left anymore, because so many of those criticizing Israel have motives that go beyond just trying to get to the truth. They’re past that point. They don’t think Israel should exist.” And until they stop putting their political agenda ahead of journalistic integrity, the world won’t either.

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.