People want to believe the worst about Israel. They also seem to want to believe the underdog – in this case, the Palestinian Arabs – are both innocent and brave.
A perfect example of this is the case of a “selfie” which was posted, re-posted, tweeted and retweeted thousands of times on social media.
The selfie was taken by a member of a Palestinian Arab rap group Dam, and it purports to show him with eyes wide, full of fear, fleeing from two members of the Israel Defense Forces, who are chasing after him with a drawn gun.
The Israelis look anonymous and mean, while the hero of the captured frame is supposed to evoke both sympathy and awe.
And that’s just what the selfie accomplished, as revealed by the comments supplied by people forwarding the picture.
All of this was captured by the website Israellycool, whose experts pointed out something not noticed by the folks thoughtlessly forwarding the picture.
It’s a fake.
As Israellycool points out, the “IDF soldiers” are wearing sneakers and the one pointing the gun is doing so in a manner no soldier would ever do.
In fact, the other Dam band members knew it was fake but they enjoyed watching the online reaction to it.
To see some examples of the many retweets and bravos the fake selfie garnered, take a look at the Israellycool site.
And the thumbs up comments and retweets continue. It was first posted on Monday, Feb. 2, and less than 24 hours later the retweets and favorites are in the tens of thousands.