Skip to main content

Movie footage used to falsely claim Palestinians staged injuries | Fact check

Kate S. Petersen   Paste BN

The claim: Video shows Palestinians faking war injuries

A Nov. 9 Facebook video (direct link, archive link) shows footage of a child on a gurney being tended by adults while confetti falls around her. Her face appears bloodied.

Different clips of the same child are also shown in the video, including one in which a person is applying what appears to be stage makeup to her face, another in which she is rolled out on the gurney in front of a street fire and another in which she is shown clean-faced and smiling while flashing a "peace sign."

"HAMAS DECEPTION," reads the post's caption. "The Palestinians are fooling the international media and public opinion. DON'T FALL FOR IT. See for yourselves how they fake injuries and evacuate 'injured' civilians, all in front of thr (sic) cameras. Pallywood gets busted again."

"Pallywood" − a combination of the words "Palestine" and "Hollywood" − is a term commonly used to reference purportedly manufactured images of violence against Palestinians.

The claim spread on Facebook and X, formerly Twitter.

Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks

Our rating: False

This isn't proof of any staged injuries. The clips are behind-the-scenes footage from a short film shot in Lebanon.

Video shows scenes from the short film 'The Reality'

Thousands have died since the Israel-Hamas war began in October. But the clip in the Facebook post does not show scenes from that ongoing conflict.

Rather, it shows behind-the-scenes footage from the short film "The Reality." The film was posted on Instagram on Oct. 28 by user Mahmoud Ramzi, who did not immediately respond when contacted by Paste BN.

The film shows the supposedly injured child on the gurney along with other scenes, including someone playing a violin, people taking selfies and a family playing with balloons, all filmed in the same location in one sweeping take. At the film's end, a credit says, "Filmed by Mahmoud Ramzi."

On Oct. 29, the behind-the-scenes footage shown in the Facebook post was posted on Instagram by user Rami Jardali. The account appears to be associated with the girl in the film and includes dozens of videos of her. The footage is captioned "Backstage Reality," according to an Instagram translation.

Fact check: Image of 'corpse' texting is from Halloween 2022, not Gaza

On Nov. 8, Ramzi posted a video debunking inaccurate claims about the footage.

"You might have seen this viral video some are calling Pallywood," says the video's narrator. "It's actually an artistic style video from Lebanon that shows the sufferings of the people in Gaza."

Paste BN reached out to the Facebook user who posted the claim but did not immediately receive a response.

The Associated Press also debunked the claim.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaper here.

Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.

Facebook Twitter Email