Unholy lies: Al Jazeera tricks viewers and an old man

By Abdul Masih —

On Aug. 4, Al Jazeera featured Salim Asfour, 85, a skeleton of a man, as an example of the supposed starvation campaign being waged by Israel. The man’s gaunt figure inflames passions against the Jewish State. It gets repost after repost as proof of the evil colonial experiment known as Israel, as they say.

But Al Jazeera cropped out of the picture his well-fed family. A debunk video says family has clarified he suffers from a condition that caused him to lose 88 lbs from before the war.

With Al Jazeera, it’s NOT the whole truth, it IS the unholy lies. Funded 90% by Qatar, the Arabic-first news agency adheres to Islamist values: the Jews are dirty, deception is ok, only the agenda of a worldwide Islam matters.

Two days after their heart-rending coverage about Salim Asfour, he told another interviewer that the Al Jazeera reporter gave him 350 shekels for the picture and the interview — only to take it back at the end.

“This Abu Thakirah, who came and gave me 350 shekels,” Asfour complains in Arabic. (This reporter used a transcription service to translate, and it is very similar to the translated subtitles.) “When the meeting with me was over, he took them and said, ‘I want to send them to you on the app.'”

The Al Jazeera reporter never sent the shekels on the app.

“Why are you doing this? Is it a joke? Is it a joke? Do you have an agenda? Why are you doing this? This is crazy. This is stupid. How can you do this to yourself? … You are devils. Devils. This is treachery. This is not good.”

This is not the first time Al Jazeera misrepresented facts to demonize Israel and sanitize Hamas:

1. Staged hospital blast footage (October 17, 2023)

Al Jazeera aired graphic footage purporting to show the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, claiming it killed hundreds of civilians. The report relied on Hamas Health Ministry figures and included unverified eyewitness accounts, framing it as a deliberate Israeli massacre.

The correction came months later: Forensic analysis by Human Rights Watch later demonstrated that the explosion was caused by a misfired Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket, not Israel. The footage was debunked as staged — actors were seen moving bodies repeatedly for dramatic effect, and initial casualty claims of 500+ were inflated from the actual 50 or so.

Al Jazeera did not retract or correct the report promptly, contributing to widespread anti-Israel protests.

2. Unverified “massacre” claims and inflammatory language (Ongoing, e.g., October-November 2023)

Al Jazeera repeatedly described Israeli actions as “genocide” or “massacres” without evidence, such as claiming 1,000+ deaths in a single day from unconfirmed sources, while rarely mentioning Hamas’s use of human shields or October 7 atrocities (1,200 Israelis killed, 250+ hostages).

The inflammatory language and conflated reports of atrocities echoed Hamas press releases verbatim, ignoring contradictions (e.g., inflated death tolls from Gaza Health Ministry, run by Hamas). A 2024 study by the ADL found 80% of Al Jazeera‘s Gaza coverage omitted Israeli perspectives or context. This has been linked to inciting violence, including in the West.

3. Sympathetic coverage of Oct. 7 attackers (2023-2024)

Al Jazeera interviews with Hamas spokespeople and released prisoners often portray them as “freedom fighters,” e.g., a 2024 segment on a Nukhba commando who boasted of killing Israelis on Oct. 7, framed as “resistance.”

Thus, Al Jazeera glorified terrorism and did not offer victims’ accounts. Qatar’s ties to Hamas (hosting its leaders) explain the access, but it violates journalistic neutrality. The EU and UK have investigated Al Jazeera for hate speech promotion.

These examples highlight a pattern of pro-Hamas bias, with Al Jazeera‘s English service sometimes more tempered than its Arabic one. Defenders argue it’s providing underrepresented voices, but evidence of fabrication undermines this. For balance, Al Jazeera has occasionally criticized Hamas (e.g., on internal corruption), but such instances are rare in Gaza coverage.