User:Coroebus/Pallywood

Pallywood (a portmanteau of "Palestinian" and "Hollywood") refers to news events that are alleged to have been staged by Palestinian and other cameramen to portray Israel in an unfavorable light.

History
Events alleged to represent Palestinian media manipulation date back to the 1982 war in Lebanon but assertions of media manipulation were particularly prominent during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.

Sabra and Shatila massacre
During the Lebanese Civil War in September 1982 a Lebanese Forces militia group carried out a massacre inPalestinian refugee camps. The camps were surrounded by Israeli Defence Forces throughout the incident. The massacre received much attention from the world media. Most reports focused on the Israelis and usually failed to mention the Lebanese militias.

Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount
On September 28, the Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon, with a Likud party delegation, and surrounded by hundreds of Israeli riot police, visited the mosque compound of the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. The compound is the holiest site in Judaism, and the third holiest site in Islam for the majority of Muslims. The stated purpose for Sharon's visit of the mosque compound was to check complaints by Israeli archeologists that Muslim religious authorities had vandalized archeological remains beneath the surface of the mount but his visit was condemned by the Palestinians as a provocation and an incursion, claiming that Sharon knew that the visit could trigger violence. The day after Sharon's visit demonstrations and riots erupted all over the West Bank and Gaza and the violence escalated into the Al-Aqsa Intifada.

Muhammad al-Dura
Footage of Muhammad al-Dura reportedly killed by Israeli gunfire on September 30 2000 at the beginning of the Al-Aqsa Intifada was recorded by a local freelance cameraman working alone. Questions were raised about the authenticity of the tape, leading to controversy over whether he was killed by Palestinian gunfire or is not actually dead at all.

Other events
The Battle of Jenin in 2002; and the Israeli rocket attack on June 13, 2006 on a car carrying members of Islamic Jihad. have also been cited as examples of "Pallywood".

Origin
The term "Pallywood" was popularized in 2005 by Professor Richard Landes of Boston University in his 18-minute documentary film, Pallywood, According to Palestinian Sources.