The term “Pallywood” is a blend of the words “Palestine” and “Hollywood” that was coined in the early 2000s by the U.S. historian Richard Landes.
The term implies that reports from Gaza are exaggerated or manipulated as part of a propaganda effort, with claims that Palestinians use actors in crisis scenes, alter footage, and edit visuals to mislead viewers.
The term is frequently used by pro-Israel trolls who claim that fabricated footage of supposed civilian casualties is circulated to sway public opinion and mislead global media.
Experts argue that “Pallywood” is a derogatory term deliberately designed to dismiss the real struggles of Gaza civilians, erasing the humanity of Palestinian lives by framing them as staged performances.
In addition, the term “Gazawood” is also widely used by netizens, substituting the word “Palestine” with “Gaza” but serving the same purpose. The main difference between “Pallywood” and “Gazawood” is that while “Pallywood” is an older propaganda narrative, “Gazawood” is relatively recent, emerging amid the ongoing war on Gaza.
“Pallywood” Mentions Surge After October 7
According to BBC Verify analysis, the term “Pallywood” has seen its highest surge in mentions on social media over the past decade, particularly on X.
During previous escalations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 2014, 2018, and 2021, mentions of “Pallywood” peaked at around 9,500 to 13,000 per month.
However, after the October 7 Operation, mentions skyrocketed to 220,000 in November.
The analysis also revealed that the term has been shared by a range of users, including Israeli officials, celebrities, and popular bloggers from both Israel and the U.S. across platforms such as X, Facebook, and Instagram.
Furthermore, Logically Facts, a U.K. initiative to combat online misinformation, conducted an analysis of social media data from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Reddit between September 27, 2023, and October 26, 2023.
Their findings indicate that mentions of “Pallywood” steadily spiked in the days following October 7, with the term appearing over 146,000 times from October 7 to October 27, shared by more than 82,000 unique users. The most mentions came from the U.S., followed by India and Israel.
The Campaign’s Financial Support
Misbar's investigative team reviewed the campaign's current primary account on X, which plays a key role in disseminating propaganda. The campaign continuously published posts and has established pages across various social media platforms, alongside a dedicated website that has been registered since November 2023.
It remains unclear whether the campaign receives official Israeli funding, but it raises funds through an Israeli organization called IsraelGives. The fundraising is managed by an individual using the pseudonym David Cohen.
Misbar's investigative team found that the campaign aimed to collect a total of $127,600; however, as of October 25, 2024, it had only collected about $1,168, five days before the fundraising ended.
The Campaign Aims to be an ‘Effective Hasbara Center’
In the same fundraising campaign through IsraelGives, the organizers state their goal is for their content to achieve “widest distribution in order to change the anti-Israeli balance, and to be an effective Hasbara center.”
The term Hasbara, meaning explaining in English, was popularized in the early twentieth century by Polish Zionist activist and journalist Nahum Sokolow. While similar to other propaganda forms, Hasbara often focuses on events and narratives that Israel uses to justify its actions and policies.
One of Hasbara's purposes is to rationalize attacks on civilian areas, attributing civilian casualties to Hamas. Amid the current genocide in Gaza, the “human shields” justification has intensified. Israel’s Hasbara portrays mass evacuation orders in North Gaza as attempts to minimize civilian casualties, despite significant harm inflicted on civilians.
Palestinian victims of Israel's military force are portrayed as “collateral damage” within this narrative.
Although Hasbara is employed amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza war, the extreme conditions in Gaza make it increasingly challenging for Hasbara to maintain the same level of persuasive impact, as the dire situation contradicts these justifications.
"Pallywood" and "Gazawood": Narratives of Denial and Confirmation Bias
In the context of “Pallywood” and “Gazawood,” as well as the denial of clear evidence regarding civilian suffering in Gaza, users often dismiss factual media reports due to their confirmation biases.
Confirmation bias is a cognitive tendency to favor information that aligns with one’s preexisting beliefs.
Misbar's team found that the main accounts driving the Pallywood narrative seem to enjoy the attention they receive. While it remains uncertain if these individuals are paid for downplaying the suffering of Palestinians, they clearly revel in the notoriety.
A recent example is the main X account of “Gazawood” sharing Misbar and France 24 video reports that debunk their viral claims.
Rather than seeing these fact-checking reports as refutations and deleting their biased analysis, Pallywood users take them as validation and interpret them as endorsements of their work, despite the thousands of articles disproving their baseless narratives.
Fact-Checkers' Insights on the “Pallywood” and “Gazawood” Disinformation Campaign
Misbar interviewed six fact-checkers and researchers from both Eastern and Western media outlets who have been actively tracking and debunking viral disinformation shared by the Israeli campaign. When asked two key questions, their responses revealed strong alignment:
- What do you believe is the primary objective of this campaign?
- Do you find that their “biased” analysis of videos from Gaza is supported by credible sources? Please provide examples if applicable.
The first interviewee, a journalist and documentary producer who requested anonymity, stated that the campaign’s main objective is to belittle or even dehumanize Palestinian suffering.
According to the journalist, who actively writes against the campaign, this kind of disinformation serves to justify Israel's ongoing atrocities in Gaza and Lebanon nowadays by shifting blame onto victims and diverting attention from the real human toll. Furthermore, the journalist does not believe that the campaign is backed by credible sources.
Misbar also spoke with Irmak Küçükaksu, a fact-checker and journalist at the Turkish Anadolu Agency, who described the campaign as systematic and aimed at legitimizing ongoing attacks in Gaza.
Küçükaksu believes that the campaign’s objective is to obscure the humanitarian crisis faced by Palestinians struggling to survive under harsh conditions in Gaza and to divert attention from the reality on the ground.
Irmak highlighted a striking example of the campaign’s disinformation that had a significant impact: in December 2023, Israel's “The Jerusalem Post” claimed on X that a Palestinian baby killed in Israeli airstrikes was merely a toy.
This claim gained traction to the extent that Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, repeated it on the TV program “Dimanche en politique,” alleging Palestinian mothers staged toy dolls as deceased infants. However, it was later confirmed that the baby was a real 5-month-old, Mohammed Hani Al-Zahar, who had lost his life in the attack.
Irmak also noted that the campaign's sources are biased and bolstered by “important press and publication organs, important politicians and sometimes even Israel's own official social media accounts.”
Sami Vanderlip, a freelance journalist investigating with Drop Site and Al Jazeera Investigations, also believes that the campaign’s primary goal is to dehumanize Palestinians, fostering a perception of their lives as lesser. Sami said, “[The campaign] makes those in support of Israel view Palestinian life as having less worth, and therefore they feel no problem with killing them.”
Sami further told Misbar that he does not believe the pro-Israel campaign relies on valid sources in their analysis.
Fatima Khateeb, a fact-checker with The Palestinian Observatory “Tahaqaq,” provided a detailed account of the “Pallywood” and “Gazawood” disinformation campaigns.
She stated that the primary goal of these campaigns is to undermine the Palestinian narrative by casting it as unreliable or exaggerated, thereby eroding international sympathy for Palestinian suffering and influencing global public opinion.
Additionally, she noted that the campaign seeks to discredit Palestinian media content, a tactic designed to deflect criticism from Israel.
Fatima further explained that the campaign’s critiques primarily rely on “interpreting content rather than offering conclusive field evidence.” She cited the case of Muhammad al-Durrah’s killing in 2000 as a clear example of how this approach works.
Misbar also spoke with an OSINT investigator who is actively working to debunk the baseless campaign.
The researcher, who provided his accounts anonymously, stated that the primary aim of the campaign is to cast doubt on the situation in Gaza.
He mentioned recent social media accusations against the French newspaper “Libération” for featuring a photo of Gazan activist Saleh Al-Jafarawi on its front page.
When asked about the sources used by the campaign, the researcher noted that he had not found any credible sources cited.
He emphasized that most instances involve manipulations, such as reversing sequences to raise suspicion or using unfounded conspiracy theories, alongside the concept of “argumentative millefeuille,” where multiple invalid arguments are layered together to create a more convincing narrative.
Misbar also interviewed Raneen Abahra, a fact-checker for the “Kashif” Palestinian Observatory for verification and media education.
Raneen stated that the primary goal of the campaign is to manipulate, fabricate, and question the deaths and injuries of Palestinians.
Moreover, Raneen mentioned that during the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, they have monitored several accounts created specifically to publish content within the Pallywood campaign. These accounts, which support both the Israeli occupation and the Pallywood narrative, operate systematically and lack reliable sources for their claims.
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Pallywood and Gazawood: Systematic Campaign Romanticizes Gazan Suffering Amid War
