Israel: Fire UN official over false Gaza photo

[toomuchtime_]

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor called Wednesday for the dismissal of a UN official who earlier this week tweeted a picture of a Palestinian child covered in blood and falsely claimed she was killed by an IDF strike.

Kuhlood Badawi, an information and media coordinator for OCHA, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, posted a link to the picture of a young girl covered in blood being carried by her father, along with the tweet: “Palestine is bleeding. Another child killed by #Israel... Another father carrying his child to a Grave in #Gaza.”

The picture, it emerged, was published in 2006 by Reuters and was of a Palestinian girl who died in an accident unrelated to Israel.

Prosor, in his letter to Valerie Amos, the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, expressed “outrage” at Badawi’s conduct, saying that even though her tweet was blatantly false, it became the top tweet the day it was posted for anything relating to Gaza.

“We have before us an OCHA information officer who was directly engaged in spreading misinformation,” Prosor wrote.

“When the conduct of an OCHA employee so grossly deviates from the organization’s responsibility to remain impartial, the integrity of the entire organization is eroded.

The credibility of OCHA is already seriously in doubt among the Israeli public. This is why immediate action in this case is necessary.”

Prosor said that not only did Badawi’s actions violate conduct expected of a UN official, but that she “actively engaged in the demonization of Israel, a member state of the United Nations. Such actions contribute to incitement, conflict and, ultimately, violence.”

Prosor not only called for her firing, but also for an OCHA statement disassociating itself from her Twitter comments.

Israel: Fire UN official over fal... JPost - Diplomacy & Politics

 

[Ariux]

One wonders why with the children regularly killed or wounded by Israeli bombs, someone would misrepresent another picture as this.

 

[Hossfly]

One wonders why with the children regularly killed or wounded by Israeli bombs, someone would misrepresent another picture as this.

Sometimes when I am bored I text a random phone number with the message,"I hid the body, now what?"

 

[Katzndogz]

Shade of Mohammed Dura, one of the better known of Palestinian lies.

 

[Trajan]

typical UN outrage....Bolton was exactly right, the place is worthless..well, the top floors, but I'll go one better....

 

[Jos]

pro-Israeli activists had similarly posted old photos and videos of rocket attacks.

In one case, she highlighted a Twitter post by IDF spokeswoman Avital Leibovich who wrote: “A barrage of Grad rockets ranging 40 km., fired by Islamic Jihad into #Israel” with a link to a video that – Alzeer pointed out – was originally posted last October.

Fake photos of escalation posted ... JPost - Diplomacy & Politics

 

[toomuchtime_]

pro-Israeli activists had similarly posted old photos and videos of rocket attacks.

In one case, she highlighted a Twitter post by IDF spokeswoman Avital Leibovich who wrote: “A barrage of Grad rockets ranging 40 km., fired by Islamic Jihad into #Israel” with a link to a video that – Alzeer pointed out – was originally posted last October.

Fake photos of escalation posted ... JPost - Diplomacy & Politics

Leibovich should have stated she was posting an archived photo of a Grad rocket, and Badawi should have stated that the photo and the tweet illustrated her pathological hatred of Israel and not an actual event.

 

[Intuition123]

There were 100's of missiles sent to the southern part of Israel and hardly a mention in the newspapers. There is a consipiracy of silence towards Israel and propoganda by the arabs and pro palistinian news that demonizes Israel.

How come the news was quiet?

 

[Artevelde]

Hadn't really heard of this incident. But if the account in the OP is correct this person should certainly be fired.