Another Deception in the Media War

In the propaganda war against Israel during Ramadan, an article has been published by the Middle East Monitor (MEMO) claiming that a Jewish rabbi has given Jewish settlers permission ‘to poison water sources in Palestinian areas in the occupied West Bank.’

This story has been repeated by many other news sites. One is the Palestine Chronicle, which claims that the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) have described this statement as ‘an order to kill.’

Similarly, the Al-Watan Voice quotes a member of the PLO Executive Committee as claiming that, “This is an incitement and a call for killing the Palestinians.”

But contradictory articles have soon appeared online claiming that this is another deception, another libel against the Israelis.

First, it would normally be the Palestinian Authority (PA) that would make any such statement, not the PLO. Second, no-one can identify the rabbi named in the original article, ‘Rabbi Shlomo Mlma’. And third, the organisation to which he was said to belong does not exist, the so-called ‘Council of Rabbis in the West Bank settlements.’

Thus it is that the Jerusalem Post observes that this new libel follows hard on the heels of another one that claimed the Israelis had cut off water supplies to Palestinians in the West bank last week. Their article also reveals that an official within Hamas used a photo of a member of the Knesset to promote this new libel, implying that he is the rabbi in question.

The big question is: just how much damage is being done by deceptions like this?