1000 words. But are those words always true?
Some may remember the Mohammed Al-Dura photo that appeared during the Palestinian Terror War (known more popularly–and less accurately–as the Second Intifada). Here it is:
While the story originally told about it was that the boy and his father, cowering in terror, were being fired upon by the IDF in a gunfight with Arab terrorists, an investigation later showed that the Al-Duras, who were ultimately shot and killed, were actually shot by Arabs.
Pictures tell a story, but pictures like this one, taken out of any context at all, don’t always tell an accurate one. Such a picture can be easily staged; just take a couple of friends out to a culvert by a wall, have them sit down and look scared, and snap the photo. As it happens, this photo was real, though it doesn’t say anything about why they were cowering, or what happened in the end, and who did it. The story behind it that was originally published? A fabrication, a distortion.
Here is another picture:
It even has a caption to help the reader understand what he or she is looking at. The only problem is that the caption is a lie. The “Palestinian” in the foreground, dazed and bleeding after a beating, was not beaten by the Israeli policeman in the background. And he’s not Palestinian. He is Tuvia Grossman, a Jewish student from Chicago who was visiting Israel in 2000 when he found himself face to face with an Arab mob who beat him to within an inch of his life. The policeman in the background, Gidon Tzefadi, actually saved his life. Here is a video explaining what happened both from Grossman’s point of view and from Tzefadi’s:
Rosh Hashana is nearly upon us. This is a time when we are judged for our actions, and when we pray to be judged fairly. As we look ahead to the new year beginning, we also pray for the wisdom and compassion to judge others fairly. One way to achieve this laudable goal is to shut our ears to rumors, and await credible evidence before believing slanderous tales. As it happens, these actions should be applied to the media as much as to our friends and neighbors. The Israeli government, its army, and its citizens sometimes do things that don’t make us proud. These things have a way of appearing in the press early, and in the worst possible light. However, I have found that it is worth reserving judgment until more of the facts are available, because a picture can tell a story. It’s just sometimes the wrong one.
Shimshonit 
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