- This photo was posted to Facebook with the caption that indicated that the soldier was Israeli and the child, Palestinian.
The Israeli newspaper, Haaretz is reporting that in a calculated effort to give the State of Israel a proverbial black-eye, Wesley Muhammad elected to post this picture to his Facebook page with a misleading caption. In the photo, a soldier is pressing his boot against the chest of child laying on the ground; the soldiers gun is pointed at the frightened child’s head.
In the caption, Muhammad intentionally misidentified the soldier as a member the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the small child as being Palestinian. The photo instantly went viral. People the world over expressed outrage and demanded to know more about the incident and the status of the two subjects.
Lot’s of people in Israel were also angered by the photo: angry and sure that the caption wasn’t telling the truth. It didn’t take much detective work to figure out that Wesley Muhammad had lied about what the picture was actually showing. Israelis quickly identified a number of problems: the uniform of the soldier is not the kind issued by the IDF; the gun the soldier is holding is not used by Israeli soldiers. Many Israelis also pointed out that the crowd watching the incident is making no effort to help the girl. Palestinians would never, ever, let an Israeli soldier do what this soldier is doing to a child without trying to interfere.
With all this evidence piling up, it didn’t take long for someone to find the original picture and determine the real-story: An Arab blogger, wanting to expose the inhumanity of Bahrain monarchy which has been confronting in it own version of the “Arab Spring,” posted the picture to his blog following demonstrations in that Gulf nation.
Tent of Abraham 
Dear Mr. Mitch Gilbert,
My name is Wesley Muhammad, the co-star, if you will, of your recent sensationalist article of February 2, 2012 entitled, “Israeli Public Exposes Facebook Photo Hoax.” This article was rather disappointing, but I cannot say that it was terribly surprising. Your article (as well as those that have preceded yours, such as the Haaretz article) profoundly misrepresents my role in the transmission of the photo in question, and your efforts to help Israel, an abuser of human rights, play the victim here is quite transparent.
You claim Mr. Gilbert that my sharing of said photo with my 5000 Facebook Friends was a “calculated effort to give the State of Israel a proverbial black-eye.” Please. You, sir, are apparently more impressed with the power of my miniscule real estate within the Land of Facebook than I am. Allow me to clarify the facts as they relate to my role in the transmission of the photo, facts, mind you, that were readily available to you on my public Facebook page and which you could have availed yourself to before penning this misrepresentative article (presuming, of course, that you did not so avail yourself and then proceed to misrepresent the facts anyway).
As I have recently posted, I came across the photo in question in my News Feed, posted by one of my many Facebook Friends. I certainly did not introduce the photo to Facebook, contrary to what the media sensationalism suggests. A caption identifying the man and girl as IDF and Palestinian already accompanied the photo as it appeared in my News Feed. Your statement, “In the caption, Muhammad intentionally misidentified the soldier as a member the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the small child as being Palestinian,” is a misrepresentation of the facts. I did no such thing: the descriptive caption already accompanied the photo. I shared the photo and description as it appeared in my News Feed.
At the time, I had no a priori reason to doubt the accompanying descriptive caption, because such inhumane treatment of the Palestinians by the State of Israel is an undeniable fact. Do you, Mr. Gilbert, deny similar atrocities have been carried out against the Palestinians by the IDF and other arms of the Israeli state? Do you deny that over 700 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers between September 2000 and May 2005? Do you deny or are you, Mr. Gilbert, an apologist for the IDF captain that emptied his automatic rifle into the body of 13-year old Iman al-Hams, shooting her 17 times and then arrogantly boasting that, had she been 3-years old, he would have done the same? Do you deny, or is it not equally inhumane, that Israeli forces massacred dozens of innocent Pro-Palestinian protesters in June, 2011 in Israeli-occupied Golan Heights? And was not the IDF and former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon found complicit in the 1982 genocide of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut? I can go on ad nauseum. No Facebook posting of mine can give the State of Israel a black-eye, Mr. Gilbert. She already has two prodigious self-inflicted black-eyes.
Nor were my ambitions for this photo as grand and conspiratorial as your article and many others of the Israeli/Jewish press are suggesting. See, that photo was simply one of a dozen or so photos that I included in an album which I entitled, “Some Crimes of White Supremacy.” The actions of the State of Israel against not only the Palestinians but against Africans and other indigenous peoples of this earth, including its own Beta Israel (so-called Falasha) residents, indeed constitute crimes of White Supremacy. Also featured as a crime of White Supremacy was, for example, the fictitious white Jesus and white Mary of Christendom and the white Muhammad of Islamdom; a photo of Arab rulers (much of the Arab World today is no less a member of the global White Supremacy confederacy, if you will, than is Israel); images from the African Holocaust of Enslavement and images of colonial abuse of indigenous peoples in Australia, Africa, etc. You all have made way more of this photo than I did.
In any case, when reasonable objections to the authenticity of the photo were raised, I took it upon myself to remove the photo. You misrepresent the facts, Mr. Gilbert, by claiming that Facebook removed the photo after “being advised that it was a hoax”. I personally took the initiative to remove the photo myself, with no official prompting from Facebook. You misrepresent the facts also by suggesting (even though you don’t state it so clearly) that I “cropped” the photo myself. In fact, I simply transmitted it as is.
With that being said, I take full responsibility for not vetting the photo before sharing it, though the verdict is still out on its original context (Bahrain riot? Bahrain play? Syrian riot? Etc). However, I take no credit or blame for the uber-conspiracy that you and the Israeli press are accusing me of: of seeking to blacken Israeli’s already blackened eye, for seeking to start an Israeli-Palestinian online war, etc. All of this hyperbole makes for good press and even better propaganda (and character assassination), but it is simply foundationless. In as much as I could have vetted the photo before sharing it, you Mr. Gilbert could have researched your story better before publishing it.
In any case, I would appreciate it if you shared this letter with your readers, so they can have a balanced perspective of this matter and judge it for themselves. Surely, you value a free and unbiased press, don’t you Mr. Gilbert?
Sincerely,
Wesley Muhammad, PhD.
February 3, 2012
As per your request Dr. Muhammad, I am publishing your response for my readers to see. That said, while attribution for how you came to possess the photo in question and who actually cropped it before YOU put up on Facebook for the world to see -may have not be accurate, those technical facts don’t excuse what motivated you to post the picture in the first place. Nor does our using this comment section to correct the “facts” validate your visceral hate and desire to promote hostility for the State of Israel.
It can be easily argued that the numerous Israeli atrocities your offer as proof of how heinous Israel is, are as much propaganda as fact. I have never knowingly told a lie or made a disparaging comment about “all Palestinians.” Can you say the same about Jews and Israelis, Dr. Muhammad?
As a political progressive and human rights activist, I am aware of, and certainly not proud of Israel’s human rights violations of Palestinians. They are many, and shameful. I am proud to say that I’m a member of an organization, “J-Street,” that believes in the inalienable human rights of the Palestinian people and is promoting a two state solution. That said, I have never heard of some if not many of the barbaric incidents you make reference to. I challenge you Dr. Muhammad, to give me irrefutable proof that an IDF Captain emptied his gun into a 13 year old Palestinian; or proof of the existence of intentional Israeli plan to commit genocide against the Palestinian people.
Your comments are so riddled with delusions of a grand white-Jewish supremacist conspiracies as to make your words and opinion unworthy of serious consideration. Your sanctimonious sense of African victim-hood is frightening and must be a terrible intellectual, spiritual and emotional handicap to bear through life.
This has not been ‘cropped’ – and as Brother Wesley said: “At the time, I had no a priori reason to doubt the accompanying descriptive caption, because such inhumane treatment of the Palestinians by the State of Israel is an undeniable fact.”
There is good reason to hate Israel…
Annette Gray, let me offer you some videos to look at in response:
Annette, these are just 5 videos I found on YouTube in less that 2 minutes that show Muslims and Palestinians MURDERING innocent people. Are you aware Annette that there are quite literally, thousands of good reasons for people to hate Muslims: Believe it or not, I do not. I understand that:
1. In war, horrible things happen
2. There are angry murderers among us: people so enveloped by hate and violence that under the banner of a noble cause like winning political freedom for their people, they are willing to commit heinous crimes against humanity.
3. As a religious Jew, I believe every human being is holy and created in the Image of God.
“There is good reason to hate Israel…” Well Annette, if that sentiment is a reflection of your intellect and mind set, let me express the hope at some future point in your life, your African heritage will give you a rich enough sense of self-respect and you Muslim faith will so ennoble your character, that you won’t have to “hate” anyone.
ADDENDUM RE: ANNETTE GRAY
I made the mistake of assuming that because Ms. Gray referenced Wesley Muhammad as “Brother,” that she might be of African decent and a Muslim. I stand corrected.
Ms. Gray is actually from the ranks of enlightened, progressive thinking white Europeans who, when choosing which side to be on in confrontations between 1st world and 3rd world peoples, will always go with oppressed people of color. It’s the only civil thing enlightened people can do! And when those confrontations involve people of Jewish decent, you can be sure those enlightened, idealistic, highly moral Europeans will always disapprove of whatever position Jewish people take.
No, of course Annette Gray is not anti-Semitic, she’s too enlightened to acknowledge disdain or dissaproval for a religious or ethnic group. She just “hates” (her word, not mine) those Jewish-Israelis. And if you can see a distinction between anti-Semitism and “hating Israel,” you’re shoveling bullshit too!
Dr. Wesley Muhammad is a diligent and credible scholar. His scholarship and attention to detail is superb. To suggest his motives are a ” calculated effort to give the State of Israel a proverbial black-eye” is neither factual or accurate. From following his consistent and educational lectures, I sense no “African victim-hood”. What i sense and learn from Dr. Muhammad is substantial evidence to support his views.
Handicap is a far measure detailing Dr. Muhammad’s wonderful research.
I really haven’t followed the conflict between Paelestine and Israel close enough to make a statement about it. I can identify with the presence of the white supremacy in the U.S.A. The control over the media and one sided views are unbelievable. Its unbelievable how people feed into the rhetoric you see on Fox, within the NY post and other medias. The exploitation of blacks in the United States is alive today. We are handicapped in a White Supremacist created race war throughout history. Our minds are miseducated in urban school systems. Our roots seperated through slavery. Our tongues cut off through means of seperating us from our native tongues. Our soul tainted through the forcing of European theology on us. All we are left with is our legs. I guess thats why you see mostly succesful athletes outside of entertainers who mostly sell out with a devilish tongue. Our heroes throughout history from the White Supremacist view are the leaders who help inc. us into your way of life. Truthfully that might have been yhe biggest mistake they made.
There’s been alot of accusations and alot of misunderstandings about this thing. I think Mr. Muhammad and Mr. Gilbert would benefit from a personal meeting over a bottle of a socially acceptable beverage.
Here we have the usual arch deception and skill to trick being manifested again.It is an argument this time from oppresive jews and not thier oppresive white american counterparts.Very slick talk.In actuality.If jews can admit that oppresion is happening within thier state then the argument is over.Occupying the darker people of the world are the historic characteristics of whites collectively and now jews in israel.These are wicked acts of devilishment.The verbal skill to deceive that has come from the beneficiaries of the occupiers is to dumb down any protest .Control the protest.Make the protester sumbit to the occupiers rules of protest.When in truth if you occupy a nation how you see fit then a nation can get rid of you how they see fit.If the oppressed took on advice on how to rebel it shouldnt be from the oppressor.These jews and whites who speak as you do ignore rebuttals in order to control the focus of the reader/listeners to open ended and unfounded accusations.Most of the time the wicked lies are about what is taking place in the heart and mind of a member of the Nation of Islam.These are the skills of a devil of the grafted type.To silence the words of a muslim man by diverting attention (by way of false accusation) to the internal process’s of his being so that the effects of the truth in his rebuttals are deadend.A true and living god will never be with a wicked people like this.A real god loves truth and wouldnt encourage such incredibly skillful deceptive ability that has original inhabitants of the earth decived on a grand scale..
I hope you realize Mark, that your generalizations about Jews and white people, easily identify you as hateful bigot. Whatever valid insights you might be able to offer the world about “have’s” oppressing “have-nots,” about economic and political oppression is completely worthless when delivered with such over prejudices about all Jews and whites. That’s how hate-ridden bigots talk, not oppressed people seeking genuine justice. All you have to offer the world is one injustice for another.
Allahu Akbar!
And shouting “Allahu Akbar!” God is Great, means what Shabazz? That you are intoning the Divine name? For what purpose? Are you trying to say something but lack the intellectual content to say anything more?
God is Great means Allah is The Greatest; and the purpose is to give honor and praise to the author of wisdom and understanding regardless of how well we debate an issue. Those who understand that the authority of all truth is Allah, also understand that those who don’t understand this simple fact are themselves lacking “…the intellectual content to say anything more?”….
What a lovely way of excusing people who can’t write a complete sentence and express a thought beyond some emotional slogan.
Mr.Gilbert have you ever read the book title The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews ? This book is a very powerful book both volumes please check them out sir.
I’m very familiar with the books Mujahid. They are nothing less then anti-Semitic fiction, much like the “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” The Secret Relationship Between Blacks & Jews was intentionally written to suggest that the Jews, more than any other group, were responsible for the slave trade. Do you also want to reference Mein Kampf while your suggesting hateful crap that bigots hold up as justification for their prejudices?
D. Muhammad Shabazz inserted a comment “..Allahu Akbar!” in response to Wesley Muhammad’s reply to you;
You then, Mr. Gilbert replied, “..And shouting “Allahu Akbar!” God is Great, means what Shabazz?”
I then answered your question, “means what?” and your response to my answering your question is “..What a lovely way of excusing people who can’t write a complete sentence and express a thought beyond some emotional slogan..”
Scripture speaks of individuals just like you during the biblical days of Jesus always coming behind Jesus making mischief and false and misleading interpretations as to confuse the people, cause mischief and/or the shedding of blood.
In closing, Mujahid asked if you READ the books Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews; in turn you answered “…I’m very familiar with the books..”
Does that mean you read the books or does that mean you heard of the books. You really don’t have to answer this question because if you had read the books you would understand how foolish your answer to Mujahid was considering the writers and scholars of the book are renowned and accepted Jewish Scholars and historians. When you condemn these books you are condemning the foundation of Jewish scholarship. If it is fiction then these well respected Jewish academics should be stripped of their scholarship and ran out of town on a wild Russian Boar!
Mitchell Gilbert you’ve stated,
“I am aware of, and certainly not proud of Israel’s human rights violations of Palestinians. They are many, and shameful.”
Therefore Mr. Gilbert, you agree with all of those commenting on this article concerning the terrible treatment of Palestinians. Since you know that “Jewish Israeli’s” are primarily responsible for these “shameful” acts against “Muslim/Arab Palestinians,” spewing hateful and immature remarks at the commentators for using the word “Jew/Jewish” is very petty, as it deflects for the sentiments that you share with the commentators.
Nevertheless, what is one to make of your combative behavior Mr. Gilbert? Could it be that you are showing contempt for those commenting because you really do not care how the Palestinians are treated, despite your expression that you do? Could your contempt be because many of the commentators are Muslim and because you are Jewish, you somehow feel offended (in a misplaced way, of course)? Or could your behavior be a mirror of your sub par and immature journalism skills?
Crystal x Hale, you apparently live in a very simple world where everything is black and white, right and wrong. There are no gray areas or common ground. Someone is either a hero or the devil. Israel can’t have any legitimacy if it is guilty of human rights abuses? Palestinians and Muslims never, ever murder innocent people? Really? Much of the world might disagree with you.
I trust you are literate enough to note that most of the comments be left here are coming from followers of Wesley Muhammad and people who “hate” (their word, not mine,) Israel. In spite of my progressive political views and advocacy for human rights, I must admit with much shame that I have little tolerance for stupidity and bigotry hiding behind economic, political and cultural victimization.
M S Gilbert
Who were/are the main authors or instigators of what became the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, WWI, WWII and the impending WWIII, beginning with an attack on Iran, and toward what end? Who is it that has been for years, decades even making up the past century, that has enliven and propagated the magnification of world-wide social, political, cultural, ethnic, religious and racial differences, so as to divide the the peoples of the earth? What do the empirical tracts of history (which include your own Jewish scholars of history) from every scholarly civilized institution of learning the world over—say to substantiate the answering of such questions? Why continue in this vein of seeking to detract or divert attention from what stands as the true issue of our time, and the part our beloved brother Dr. Wesley Muhammad plays in answering the question—“Who are “the Real Children of Israel?”
As a conservative Jew, your motives and efforts to malign, libel and other-unwise attempts at discrediting Dr. Wesley are obvious. It would serve you and yours better to actually research our brother’s body of work (unbiassedly), to avail yourself of the information that it provides toward throwing light upon this most important of all questions of the true identity of “God’s Chosen People.” To verbally assail him and others of his guild will indeed prove futile as time will most definitely bear-out.
I am reminded of a couple of verses from the book of Isaiah the prophet, i.e. 10:33 & 34, “See, the Lord, the LORD Almighty, will lop off the boughs with great power. The lofty trees will be felled, the tall ones will be brought low. He will cut down the forest thickets with an ax; Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.” You see—what Dr. Wesley and those with him represent are a FULFILLMENT of the above mentioned verses. Not that we are that “Mighty One” mentioned, but we know and do stand with HIM and HIS Christ. And the ax of HIS choice today is truth of God—that cuts at the many lies proliferated for centuries by many false religious teachers, historians, would be journalist, and today bloggers such as you and those with like interests (forest thicket, bough and trees) in continuing this charade. We are exposing these lies to the very ROOT, leaving them “Not a root or a branch…” Lies can not live in the light of the recorded history of nation and people. Just stop it!
A well intended adviser,
Rodney
Rodney, I cannot begin to thank you enough for this comment. You have directly and eloquently confirmed all the points I have been making about anti-Semitism and what is really motivates Wesley Mohammad and his supporters. Thank you for so honestly affirming your bigotry and hate for the Jewish people. How refreshing.
MS Gilbert
Sir, are you truly Semitic? You will have a hard time trying to pull that over today. Again—in light of the histories of nations and people, and the Revelation of the Truth of God, we know and understand who is who and what is what, so such diversionary deception no longer has its sting. We are familiar with this trick employed through the media as so put by the Former Israeli Minister of Education, Minister Shulamit Aloni—“Well, it’s a trick, we always use it. When from Europe somebody is criticizing Israel, then we bring up the Holocaust. When in this country people are criticizing Israel, then they are anti-Semitic. And the organization is strong, and has a lot of money, and the ties between Israel and the American Jewish establishment are very strong and they are strong in this country, as you know. And they have power, which is OK. They are talented people and they have power and money, and the media and other things, and their attitude is “Israel, my country right or wrong”, identification. And they are not ready to hear criticism. And it’s very easy to blame people who criticize certain acts of the Israeli government as anti-Semitic, and to bring up the Holocaust, and the suffering of the Jewish people, and that is justify everything we do to the Palestinians.” So, please stop!
Let me see if I got this right, you are quoting a notorious Jew hater like Edward Hendrie to prove that Jews are Semites? That’s like quoting Hitler to justify killing Jews. Hateful people will always fight crazy-hateful people to rationalize their bigotry.
M S Gilbert
Who—I ask is Minister Shulamit Aloni? Is she a crazy hater of Israelis, a bigot unworthy of being quoted?
Mr Gilbert are those people in the east the real children of Israel ? And were they really the ones enslaved for 400 years ? Mr Gilbert you use the word hate towards anyone who stands up and condemn Israel why and is that fair to judge ? Yes please let me say the book The Secret between Blacks and Jews if it is a lie please show and prove it instead of complaining about it lol..
Mujahid, people like you need to find rational reasoning for hating a people, aren’t interested in the truth. Do you know of accredited university in the world that has its students study The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews as history? It’s a piece of fiction created by the same mentality that says that all members of this or that race are intellectually inferior or prone to crime. How sad that you must believe its true to justify hating another people. But that, I guess, is how passionate bigots maintain avoid confronting the hate in their heart.
Mr Gilbert you very funny and silly but anyway thank you for taking time out to answer my few questions you have proving that you don’t study enough for me to even attempt to challenge you on the fact of who are the real children of Israel. And for the record the Holy Quran teach us that all Jews are not the enemy just a few oh well hmm I forgot sir what Jewish section do you belong to ? If you kind please answer my last question