Israeli singer and social media activist Rotem Shefa, also known as Shefita, published a sarcastic video accusing Palestinians of faking their deaths and injuries. The video was captioned: “ For international production, looking for actors without experience! DM for details.”
Shefita started her video by introducing herself as a director, then went on to show three videos: the first shows a mother with her murdered baby, the second of three men lying on the ground, the third is of a group of people covered with shrouds, one of them can be seen opening his eyes.
Shefita put these three videos together in an attempt to “show these people how to be better actors”, then proceeds to say that Palestinians fake their deaths and injuries. The three videos were published as a part of the “Pallywood” campaign which casts doubt on the number of Palestinians killed and wounded in Israel’s ongoing aggression on Gaza.
Kashif had previously debunked the three claims, and identified that they are fake. Following are the details:
The First clip: A video of a murdered infant from the Gaza Strip was published with a claim it was a doll.
The claim was spread along the #Pallywood social media campaign which casts doubt on the existence and number of Palestinians killed and wounded in the Israeli shelling and aggression on Gaza, and accuses Palestinians of faking death to gain international sympathy.
Kashif verified the claim and found it to be misleading. The viral videos are of the infant Mohammad Al-Zahar who was killed in an Israeli occupation’s bombing of his family’s home in the Al-Maghraqa area north of the Al-Nusairat refugee camp in the Gaza Strip just after the ceasefire ended and the Israeli aggression resumed.
The infant’s grandfather stated that his daughter was breastfeeding her child, who was in good health condition and didn’t suffer any health issues when they were targeted by the Israeli occupation’s bombing which led them to flee and transfer the infant to Al-Awda hospital which retransferred Mohammad to Al-Aqsa hospital where he was confirmed dead (killed). Multiple media outlets and journalists covered Mohammad’s farewell.
The second clip: a video of three young men lying on the ground claiming that it belonged to Palestinians from Gaza pretending to be dead
A video of three young men lying on the ground went viral on social media claiming that it belonged to Palestinians from Gaza pretending to be dead, as part of the “pallywood” campaign that casts doubt of the existence and number of Palestinians killed and wounded in the Gaza Strip and accuses Palestinians of acting to gain international sympathy.
Kashif was able to find that the video is old and misleading. through reverse research and research in public sources, Kashif also found that the video was published by user “moslemaborabea” on TikTok on 26 March 2021.
Kashif also found that those appearing in the video are influencers on TikTok, and their content is based on comedy, the activists are Abu Al-Rayyan, Abu Al-Ra’d and Abu Al-Lail.
The third clip: A video of a man among a group of people lying on the ground and wearing white body bags opening his eyes
A video of a man among a group of people lying on the ground and wearing white body bags opening his eyes went viral on social media with the claim that it is from Gaza and that Palestinians are faking the death toll.
Kashif verified that the video is old and that the claim is misleading, as the video was shared before October 7. Using the reverse search feature and searching for public sources, Kashif found that the video was published on 19 August 2023 by “metjetak17” on TikTok.
The video was also posted on Instagram by user “myraudahhq” on 21 August 2023 with the comment that it is of a funeral management course.
| Source of verification | Source of claim |
| The first clip verification The second clip verification The third clip verification | the_real_shefita |