Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Ghassan Daghlas

Showing posts with label Ghassan Daghlas. Show all posts

Monday, August 14, 2023

A professional liar, with no experience, gets promoted by Mahmoud Abbas as new Governor of Nablus

For years, I have been following the career of Ghassan Daghlas, a man who has been paid by the Palestinian Authority to make up lies about alleged crimes of Israelis in Judea and Samaria.

Over at least the last dozen years, Daghlas has been quoted hundreds of times in the media as he spun lurid tales of Jews attacking Arabs, virtually always without even a photo to back up his stories.

Just two months ago, Daghlas claimed that there were 310 separate instances of Jews attacking Palestinians in the territories - in a single day. Even though these lies are so translarent, he is still quoted as a reliable official by Western media, even a recently as August 4 by AP.

All his years of deceit have now paid off.

Last week, Mahmoud Abbas fired nearly all of the governors in the West Bank. Daghlas has been chosen as the new governor of the Nablus governorate.

I cannot find any evidence that Daghlas has a shred of experience going any sort of governing or as a manager. Every biography I can find only mentions his role as a monitor of "settlers" in the northern west Bank, nothing else.

It is clear that Abbas wanted to tighten his grip on local governments as well, after already taking over the executive, legislative and judicial systems of the Palestinian Authority, not to mention heading the PLO that the PA reports to.

Daghlas, an incompetent administrator, will do whatever Mahmoud Abbas tells him to do.

Naturally, Daghlas says his top priority is "confronting the attacks of settlers and the occupation army." Not developing the economy, or uprooting corruption, or social programs for the needy - but continuing his career of blaming everything on the Jews.

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Palestinians try to burn down Joseph's Tomb - twice. But don't call them antisemitic!

Joseph's Tomb in the early 1900s

Palestinian media report:

On Friday evening, security forces prevented angry youths from burning Joseph's Tomb in the city of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank.

Local sources reported that an angry march started at night in front of Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, with the participation of dozens of young men, and headed towards Joseph's tomb in the Balata Al-Balad area, in an attempt to burn it in response to the escalating attacks by settlers.

The sources stated that reinforcements from the security services arrived at the site of Joseph's tomb and spread around it, preventing the march from approaching it, and confrontations erupted between them and the march participants.

According to Khaled Abu Toameh, there were two such attempts in recent days.

For the second time in the past few days, Palestinians attempted to set fire to Joseph's Tomb in Nablus. Palestinian Authority security forces fired tear gas to disperse the attackers.
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) December 26, 2021

Trying to burn down a Jewish holy site? Nah, nothing antisemitic about that!

Al Jazeera quotes Palestinian Authority official Ghassan Dahglas, who is literally paid to lie about Jews in the territories and gets believed by major media. He claims that Jews only created Joseph's Tomb in recent years!

Ghassan Dahglas, who is in charge of the settlement file in the northern West Bank, confirms that the place is "a shrine, not a tomb, and not for the Prophet of God Joseph, peace be upon him, as the occupation claims."

Dahglas denies that there is a tomb in the first place, and says that the Israelis came in 2011 with large stones carried by trucks, and put them down in the place, and later claimed that it was the grave, and he tells Al Jazeera Net, "This is Palestinian-documented," and adds that "all of this is taught by their children to preserve it for future generations and adopt the forged story."

Calling Jews liars and thieves for trying to claim a Muslim site as their own? Nah, nothing antisemitic about that!

While there is certainly doubt whether this is the actual location of Joseph's Tomb, it has been identified as such since the 5th century at least. Here is an 1864 account of the site by John Mills:

There is nothing remarkable in the present structure. It is surrounded by a common -built stone wall, six feet high and thirty -eight inches thick , plastered on the inside with mortar. The space within the wall measures nine feet and five inches, from north to south ; and nine feet and thirteen inches from east to west. The corners nearly answer to the cardinal points. The doorway is in the northern side ; and opposite to it in the southern wall is a place for prayer, looking towards Mount Gerizim , and marked by a niche in the wall, over which are two slabs of stone, with defaced Hebrew writing upon them : similar niches are in the south -west and north- west corners, The tomb itself is built diagonally across the floor, and not parallel to the walls, as is usual, with the head towards the door, and the feet towards the south - west. It is built of common stone, plastered over with mortar. It measures seven feet two inches long, three feet six inches high , and three feet ten inches wide at the floor, but narrowing as it rises, and at the top terminating in a ridge. There are, also, two pillars built of stone and plastered over, in the same style as the tomb itself — one standing at the head and the other at the foot - having cavities on their tops, to hold the incense burnt by the worshippers who visit the place. The larger of the two measures nearly four feet in height, and three feet in circumference. The walls on the southern side of the tomb are scribbled over with names of Samaritans, Jews, and Mohammedans, written in their different languages.

Jewish settlers again accused of chopping down olive trees - on Shabbat

Wafa and a whole bunch of other Arab sources report:

Settlers cut, today, Saturday, about 30 olive trees from Qaryut lands, south of Nablus.

The official in charge of the settlement file in the northern West Bank, Ghassan Douglas, told "Wafa" that settlers cut down about 30 olive trees in the town's lands, owned by Bilal Mahmoud Raja.

As I have shown before, Ghassan Daghlas is paid by the Palestinian Authority to make up lurid, completely fictional stories about Jewish settlers, and to tell them to the media.

This is not an exaggeration. It is his job, and he has been quoted in major media outlets who cannot believe that he is a professional liar.

In this case, as in virtually all the articles he is quoted in, there is no photographic evidence of the crime he is accusing Jews of doing.

Every article I saw about this absurd accusation, that the religious Jews of communities near Nablus would chop down trees on Shabbat, shows "archival footage" rather than any actual photos of the destroyed trees.

Even though every adult nowadays is walking around with a high resolution camera in their pocket, there are no photos.

That's truly amazing!

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As usual, the Palestinian Authority lies about Jews taking over the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron

Al Resalah has an article about how Israel "exploits Jewish holidays to attack the Palestinians."

Many Jews on vacation during Passover like to visit Biblical sites. These visits are described in the article as a fulfillment of Netanyahu's promise to annex the territories, even though this happens every year.

Ghassan Daghlas, the man that the Palestinian Authority literally pays to make up lies about Jews in the territories, does his job for this article:

"The occupation has worked to close the streets and the Ibrahimi Mosque for three days to protect the entry of more than 40 thousand settlers," he said, adding that about 2,000 people stormed the city of Jerusalem last Thursday."

"We are dealing with generations of settlers who say this is my birthplace and my birthplace is here," he said. "The problem with the new generations is exacerbated by the Israelis teaching their children."

The Cave of the Patriarchs is open for exclusive Jewish use ten days of the year. It is open for exclusive Muslim use ten days of the year as well. Those days are published in existing agreements, and the schedule for 2019 can be seen here. Nothing to do with Bibi or the elections.

And this happens every time the site is closed to Muslims as per the agreement - Arab media complains about how Israel is taking over the site.

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Palestinians are claiming Jews are burning their fields

As Palestinians are bragging about setting hundreds of fires in southern Israel, burning hundreds of acres and causing untold amount of damage, Palestinians are claiming that "settlers" are setting fires to their fields.

We've discussed Ghassan Daghlas before. He is literally paid by the Palestinian Authority to make up stories about what "settlers" are doing. Practically none of his accusations have any proof, and many of them are proven fabrications, but they get published in Palestinian Arabic media as fact - and sometimes even mainstream journalists accept his lies at face value.

He has accused Jews many times of setting Palestinian fields on fire, and today is no exception.

Daghlas claimed that a group of settlers from Yitzhar set fire to land in the town of Asira al-Qibliya, south of Nablus.

He added that the fire "came on dozens of dunums planted with olive trees."

The photo accompanying the article shows a brush fire, common in the dry season, with no olive trees in sight.

Daghlas' would be out of a job if he couldn't make things up.

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Time for the annual olive harvest lies by the Palestinian Authority

The PA's official Wafa news agency reported on Sunday:

Palestinian locals Sunday managed to foil an Israeli settlers’ attack against olive pickers in the village of Qaruot to the south of the West Bank district of Nablus, said a local activist.

Ghassan Daghles, monitoring Israeli settlement activity in the north of the West Bank, told WAFA settlers coming from 'Eli’ and 'Shilo’; two illegal Israeli settlements located along Nablus-Ramallah highway, attacked Palestinians harvesting olives in the village of Qaruot.

Locals scuffled with settlers and managed to fend off their attack. No injuries were reported.

Yisrael Medad, who lives in Shiloh, checked out the story and it is complete fiction.

Fake news.
Never happened.
All made up.https://t.co/dNsLXNNZed @odedrevivi @epieprz
— ymedad (@ymedad) October 15, 2017

Long time readers of the blog may recognize the name of the person who made this accusation, Ghassan Daghlas.

Over the years, his accusations have been published in Arab media - almost invariably without a single photo or video to corroborate his accusations.

He is literally paid by the Palestinian Authority to make up these stories. His job is to "monitor Israeli settler activity." And he knows that no one will check his stories.

Wire services and major newspapers will quote him without the slightest reservation.

Hundreds of times.

Daghlas has been busy during this start of olive season, with daily stories in Wafa. Yesterday he claimed that Israelis stole the entire olive harvest of two villages and today that the exact same thing happened with two more villages.

Evidence? Photos? Names? No need. Daghlas knows that his stories will end up in Ma'an and Mondoweiss, and with luck Reuters and the New York Times. As long as they are quoting him, without saying that his record of truth-telling is virtually nonexistent, he has no fear about lying again and again - being paid with your tax dollars.

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Today's fake news from the Palestinian Authority

How Arab newspapers illustrate "Jewish settlers"

The official Wafa news agency has another scoop courtesy of Ghassan Daghlas, the man who is literally paid by the Palestinian Authority itself to make up lies about Jewish settler activity and yet gets quoted by major news sources dozens of times a year even though he never backs up his accusations with any actual evidence.

This time Daghlas claims that Jews not only uprooted over 140 olive trees - something that is literally impossible without major earth moving equipment and a lot of time - but that they stole them!

How many trucks would be needed to steal over a hundred olive trees? Unless they are saplings that were just planted this past year or so, this story has zero credibility.

As most of Daghlas' fantasies have.

Which doesn't stop wire service reporters from quoting him liberally.

Of course, this absurd accusation of Jews stealing trees is all over Arab media.

And if the Jews are stealing trees, then Daghlas doesn't have to show any evidence - the evidence was stolen!

There is a difference between fake news from the Palestinian Authority's official news media and from any other media. No one (besides me and a very few others) calls them on it. So when the mainstream media swallows their lies, they have more incentive to add to the lies.

It would be so easy for a Washington Post or AP to launch an investigation into the lies of the PA's official news agency. A single story would do more for peace than a hundred anti-Israel stories. But there is no interest in exposing Arab lies, and that lack of interest in covering what would be a major story in the West feeds into the fantasy that both sides have equal credibility.

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Reuters' Luke Baker finds unverified Palestinian reports from a proven liar credible enough to tweet

A tweet from Luke Baker of Reuters:

The article he linked to is from Wafa, the official PA news agency:

Settlers set fire to farming land south of Nablus

NABLUS, November 24, 2016 (WAFA) – Israeli settlers from Yitzhar Thursday set fire to farming land in the town of Huwwara, south of Nablus, according to Ghassan Daghlas, an official who monitors settler activities in the north of the West Bank.

He said residents saw dozens of settlers setting fire to the land and watched from the hills celebrating as the fire raged in the area.

Fire gutted olive trees in the area, he said, as fire fighters and residents were trying to contain it before it spreads to other areas.

Weather conditions and high wind cause fires to spread fast as officials have warned against starting fire anywhere.

However, officials said the settlers took advantage of the bad weather conditions to destroy as much as possible of the Palestinian agricultural land knowing very well that the fire is going to spread fast.

As I have reported, Ghassan Daghlas is literally paid by the Palestinian Authority to lie about Israel. I've exposed his lies many times.

Shouldn't the Reuters bureau chief who has been in the region for years know this?

True, he is not reporting it as fact. He's merely trying to show a possible other side of the story. But by any measure, this Reuters bureau chief is giving credence to a proven liar being reported by an official media outlet that has no journalistic integrity whatsoever.

And Reuters has quoted Daghlas at least a dozen times in the past.

Baker is reporting unproven propaganda as something worthy of consideration to his audience without telling them that the source he is using is not only worthless, but proven to make things up for political purposes.

A real reporter would do a modicum of fact checking not only of the story but also of the source. Luke Baker prefers to spread the false propaganda rather than to even make a half-hearted attempt to verify or debunk it.

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PA news says Israel trying to establish a "settler state" in Judea and Samaria

The hookah bars in Ramallah must be doing some gangbusters business. From the official PA Wafa "news" agency:

Statistics revealed that the number of demolitions and confiscations by Israel in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2016 have increased by 450% in comparison to 2015, signaling a covert attempt to establish a state for Israeli settlers in the Palestinian state.
Since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the number of Israeli settlers and settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem has multiplied by 600%.
...Ghassan Daghlas who is in charge of monitoring and documenting Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank told WAFA after the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli government and the Zionist Lobby all agreed and began work in the direction of establishing a state for the settlers in what they choose to refer to as “Judea and Samaria”.
...Jad Issac from the Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem told WAFA that Israel plans to establish two states in the West Bank. “Israel plans to give Israeli settlers around 75% of Area C, which is a total of 60% of the West Bank, eventually turning the Palestinian state into isolated cantons on less than 50% of the original area.”

Meaning, according to the official PA news agency, Israel supports a three (or four) state solution: a Palestinian state, Jewish state, a settler state, and maybe Hamastan.

These guys really get some good scoops by interviewing their supposed "experts." Ghassan Daghlas in particular has a reputation of simply making things up - and he is on the PA payroll.

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Sequence of news stories in new Dawabashe home burning in Duma

At first the Arabic headlines said:

The house of the Rashid Munawar Dawabsheh in Duma village, south of Nablus was set on fire after midnight last night.

Spokesman Samir Dawabsheh Dawabsheh said a little while ago that the house caught fire as a result of throwing a Molotov cocktail and that it was caused by arson.

He guessed that the culprit is the invisible hands of the occupation authorities and intelligence.

He added that the fire broke out empty room, with no injuries, only one case had been suffocation.

Then came this:

Local Palestinian sources reported on Monday at dawn the burning of the house in the town Duma southeast of Nablus, without causing any loss of life, while there were suspicions about the settlers.

Official settlements monitr in the northern West Bank Ghassan Daghlas said in a press statement that the burning of the house of Rashid Munawar Dawabsheh was caused by arson, which led to the burning of one of the rooms with a family member injured taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation.

Palestinian police began an investigation into the circumstances of the incident.

Dahglas pointed out that this incident was similar to that of the incident of the burning house of the family of the martyr Saad Dawabsheh in the same town at the hands of settlers, four weeks ago, where in both incidents it involved throwing burning materials through the house window, but this time the actors did not write on the walls to show their identity .

Dahglas said it was too early to confirm the identity of the perpetrators, calling for caution from rushing to charge the settlers so the occupation cannot take advantage of the incident to acquit settlers for the earlier crime if it is proven they have no connection with the new incident.

Then:

Zakaria al-Sadda, official fieldworker for Rabbis for Human Rights, said in a statement, "According to my experience and my follow ups on settler attacks, we can rule out the possibility that they caused the burning of this house, and that the most likely cause is due to an electrical fault."

Al-Sadda didn't say that he inspected the house and found evidence for an electrical fire, he said that it is unlikely that settlers did it and therefore it must have been an electrical fire - and not arson.

This is the source of news reports claiming an electrical fire.

What would you do if you were a Duma official, faced with a possible family feud arson that might cast doubt on the earlier incident, that you wanted to cover up, and then this new theory gets floated?

Here's the new version:

Chairman of the Duma village Abdul Salam Dawabsheh said that the fire, which broke out in the house of the village at dawn Monday, is likely to be due to an electrical fault, not the settlers as reported in some news.

And Dawabsheh told Raya News "that one room of a house belonging to Munawar Dawabsheh burned and is unlikely that settlers were behind it due to the presence of guards," denying injuries.

There are photos of children in the hospital so this official who so confidently says that it was an electrical fire is already shown to be lying:

Here is a photo that seems to be of this incident, it was not labeled as a file photo:

Arutz-7 reports " Israeli security sources claimed it was more likely an internal dispute in the village."

(h/t Bob K)

UPDATE: Israel Fire Services says an electrical fire is most likely. (H/t Lahav Harkov)

Another small victory

I have previously mentioned Ghassan Daghlas, the person paid by the Palestinian Authority to make up lies about Jewish settlers.

I counted over 200 times that Daghlas was quoted by the Ma'an news agency alone, without the slightest effort to verify his absurd, and often debunked, claims.

I often commented on Ma'an about how his claims are never accompanied with any actual evidence, no photos or videos corroborating them.

Today, Ma'an wrote about another absurd claim from Daghlas - but with a difference:

NABLUS (Ma’an) -- An Israeli settler on Sunday reportedly ran over a Palestinian teen in Yatma village in southern Nablus, a local monitor of settlement activity told Ma'an.
Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settler activities in the northern West Bank, said that an Israeli settler ran over Muhammad Mustafa Najjar, 19, and then fled the scene.
Daghlas added that the teen, who was moderately injured, was taken to Rafidia hospital in Nablus.

For the first time that I've ever seen in Ma'an, a claim by Ghassan Daghlas is not accepted as absolute fact, but is now "alleged."

And as usual, the facts don't support the allegations. As David Ha'Ivri wrote in the comments:

The report is a bit strange. The main road has not been through Yitma in years. Would be odd to see Jewish drivers driving on the roads in Yitma.

Clearly an Arab ran over the teen and an opportunity was seized to blame the eternal bogeymen, the "settlers."

We'll see if this is just an anomaly or if Ma'an is actually ever so slightly raising its journalistic standards.

PA's official liar claims Jewish settlers tried to burn a house - on the Sabbath

Last week I noted that the Palestinian Authority pays Ghassan Daghlas to lie about Jewish settlers.

He is still going strong, with more allegations that are, as usual, not corroborated with a single photo.

Daghlas claimed that Jewish settlers tried to burn down an Arab house southeast of Taybeh, on Saturday morning.

Saturday is of course the Sabbath and no religious Jew would light a fire then, let alone travel to an Arab village.

Daghlas added a new wrinkle on the story. He claims that the liquid used in the firebomb only intensified when villagers tried to pour water onto it. Jewish chemists are presumably working on better firebomb materials right now.

Another version of Daghlas' story says that this incident happened Friday night - still the Sabbath - and that on Saturday morning the settlers burned an olive tree grove, again with no corroboration.

But these stories are carried widely in Arabic media.

(h/t Bob K for correction)

08/08 Links: Crossing a Line to Sell a Deal; I am a Zionist because I am an Arab

From Ian:

Crossing a Line to Sell a Deal

As heated as the arguments between us can get, we can all agree that all of these positions, and their many variants, are entirely within the bounds of legitimate political debate—and that none of them are evidence of anyone’s intent either to rush America to war or to obliterate the State of Israel.
What we increasingly can’t stomach—and feel obliged to speak out about right now—is the use of Jew-baiting and other blatant and retrograde forms of racial and ethnic prejudice as tools to sell a political deal, or to smear those who oppose it. Accusing Senator Schumer of loyalty to a foreign government is bigotry, pure and simple. Accusing Senators and Congressmen whose misgivings about the Iran deal are shared by a majority of the U.S. electorate of being agents of a foreign power, or of selling their votes to shadowy lobbyists, or of acting contrary to the best interests of the United States, is the kind of naked appeal to bigotry and prejudice that would be familiar in the politics of the pre-Civil Rights Era South.
This use of anti-Jewish incitement as a political tool is a sickening new development in American political discourse, and we have heard too much of it lately—some coming, ominously, from our own White House and its representatives. Let’s not mince words: Murmuring about “money” and “lobbying” and “foreign interests” who seek to drag America into war is a direct attempt to play the dual-loyalty card. It’s the kind of dark, nasty stuff we might expect to hear at a white power rally, not from the President of the United States—and it’s gotten so blatant that even many of us who are generally sympathetic to the administration, and even this deal, have been shaken by it.
We do not accept the idea that Senator Schumer or anyone else is a fair target for racist incitement, anymore than we accept the idea that the basic norms of political discourse in this country do not apply to Jews. Whatever one feels about the merits of the Iran deal, sales techniques that call into question the patriotism of American Jews are examples of bigotry—no matter who does it. On this question, we should all stand in defense of Senator Schumer.

Amnesty UK’s Campaigns Chief In Hot Water Yet Again Over Anti-Israel Tweets

The Israeli Embassy has lodged a complaint with Amnesty UK after one of its senior directors launched into an anti-Israel tirade on Twitter. This is not the first time that the staff member, Kristyan Benedict, has been criticised for his views, which in the past have been investigated for anti-Semitism.
Eitan Na’eh, charge d’affaires at the embassy sent a letter to Amnesty UK director Kate Allen after Benedict, who works as campaigns manager for Amnesty UK, tweeted repeatedly about the arson attack on a Palestinian home in the village of Douma last week which resulted in the death of 18-month-old Ali Dawabshe, the Jewish Chronicle has reported.
One of the tweets accused the Israeli government of “getting away with murder”.
Mr Benedict has form on this matter. Last year he used the hashtag #JSIL, sometimes used by extreme anti-Israeli groups to draw parallels between Israel and ISIS.
In 2012, Amnesty International’s disciplinary panel cleared Mr Benedict of anti-Semitism after he tweeted: “Louise Ellman, Robert Halfon and Luciana Berger walk into a bar…each orders a round of B52s … #Gaza” When fellow twitter users pointed out that he had named only Jewish Members of Parliament, he responded that it the tweet was “a giggle” and “light-hearted,” adding: “apols to those who booed.”
Amnesty ruled that “the tweet in question was ill-advised and had the potential to be offensive and inflammatory but was not racist or anti-Semitic.” The incident came a year after Mr Benedict was forced to apologise by Amnesty’s disciplinary council after he threatened to “smack” a pro-Israel activist.

I am a Zionist because I am an Arab

I am sometimes asked how despite being an Arab, I support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. My answer is that I support Israel because I am an Arab.
Israeli Arab and Muslim Sarah Zoabi said, “I want to say to all the Arabs of Israel to wake up. We live in paradise. Comparing us to other countries, to Arab countries – we live in paradise.” Sadly, we cannot all live in Israel, and even if we could, unless we change ourselves first, Israel would become one more failed Arab state.
Palestinian-Jordanian Mudar Zahran argues that we need Israel for strategic reasons, concluding that “if the day were to come when Israel falls, Jordan, Egypt and many others would fall, too, and ‎Westerners would be begging Iran for oil.‎ We can hate Israel as much as we like, but we must realize that without it, we too would be ‎gone.‎” While I agree with Zahran, Israel has no obligation to defend the whole Arab world while we Arabs keep demonizing her.
The reason I support Israel is because I want good things to happen not only in Israel but in the whole Middle East. Israel is a role model that we can emulate. Unlike fake “pro-Palestinian” activists, I want an end to hate, violence, oppression, destruction, and deaths.

The man the Palestinian Authority pays to lie

We've previously looked at Ghassan Daghlas, the person whose job it is to lie about Jews in Judea and Samaria.

I'm not joking. Daghlas is in charge of the Israeli Settlements File for the Palestinian Authority for the northern part of the West Bank.

He has been quoted hundreds of times about what the evil Jews have been doing, and his record of telling the truth is pretty much nonexistent. Stories of Jews uprooting olive trees and burning crops on Shabbat are part of his weekly routine, and no Arab media outlet is going to check on any of his preposterous lies. And he never, ever produces photos of his discoveries.

Now, the episode in Duma is giving him a chance to show off more of his skills at creating lurid lies and incitement against Jews.

Daghlas is being quoted in Arab media as having discovered "new details" of the firebombing of the house in Duma.

He quotes unnamed "witnesses" as saying that the "settlers" had first thrown the Molotov cocktails at the home, and then waited for the family to leave so they could pour gasoline on them ans set them on fire directly. Afterwards, he says, the Jews danced around the victims ecstatically as they burned.

Also, a five year old tried to stop them but they tried to kidnap him. He escaped and told the neighbors, who presuambly watched passively as the Jews danced around the burning Arabs.

Just for fun, I Googled how many times Mondoweiss quoted this liar as a reliable.

The answer: 227.

But it isn't only Mondoweiss. Daghlas has been quoted uncritically by the New York Times, Reuters, CNN and many other news outlets.

It simply does not occur to the media that the PA pays a man to lie to their faces. And they pay him with Western donor funds.

But the media cannot cover this story because it will show them to be dupes.

Why do people believe the media in a society that rewards lies?

Ma'an pretends to report some news:

An Israeli settler attempted to kidnap an 18-month-old Palestinian toddler in the Jabal al-Mukkabir neighborhood of East Jerusalem on Thursday, witnesses said.

The child was reportedly the son of Ghassan Abu Jamal, one of the attackers who killed five Israelis in an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue last November.

Who were the witnesses to this terrible crime?

Abu Jamal's brother said the child, Muhammad, was walking with his uncles when he wandered some five meters ahead of the group.

A female settler then exited a car and grabbed him, running with the child for some 20 meters before relatives caught up and freed the boy.

She released the boy and fled the scene in her car.

Witnesses say she shouted: "Arabs, Arabs, they want to kill me" during the incident

.
So the family of a terrorist claims that some "settler" (amazing how they know that) tried tokidnap a toddler but they heroically managed to stop her before anything could happen.

Let's do a quick cost/benefit analysis.

Is there any incentive to lying to Palestinian Arab media about being victimized by Jews?

Sure! Lying about some "settler" gets your name in the paper. It makes you sound like a hero. It demonizes the enemy. It can act as a distraction from your own crimes. It can gain you supporters.

Is there any disincentive to lying?

Only if you live in a society where lying about Israelis is considered wrong. Only if your society's media would bother checking facts and call you out if it is found that there is no evidence for your lies. Only if people would be upset at someone having the audacity of lying.

None of those criteria apply to Palestinian Arab society.

Plenty of Arab media reported this fake incident as fact. Not one bothered to go beyond the statements of a family that explicitly supports murdering Jews as the sole source of the otherwise unverifiable story. And they don't want to, because the media itself is part of the fabric of a society that is founded and dependent on falsehoods.

That's why we see so many stories in Ma'an and elsewhere about unverifiable "settler" attacks - never with photos or video, even though everyone has a video camera in their pockets. That's why there are so many stories about thousands of olive trees being destroyed but the only photo accompanying the story is a generic, staged "Arab woman wailing" photo.

The fact that Arab "witnesses" and media routinely lie wouldn't be a problem if Western media and NGOs would add the skepticism that is missing from the Arab media. But they don't. Reporters will believe other reporters' stories without question unless there is something obviously wrong. NGOs make their money off of these lies. So, unfortunately, the institutions that should be acting as watchdogs instead act like lapdogs for the lies, or at best they simply ignore the obvious lies but believe the next batch of lies that sound a little more plausible.

What a system!

Lies outweigh facts in Palestinian Arab media

Usually I can glean some interesting facts from the Palestinian Arab media. And, believe it or not, one of the best in terms of accuracy has been Palestine Today, which is run by Islamic Jihad.

But nowadays the Arabic media is nothing but propaganda, and they are reporting more lies than facts.

Across the board, the Arabic media is reporting the supposed abduction of an Israeli soldier as fact, even though a person with that name has been declared dead and the IDF has denied any soldier was captured. (UPDATE: IDF says it is still looking for one body.)

Up until this morning, Hamas' Al Qassam webpage showed a fake picture of the "capture" that was actually part of a Hamas kidnap training session from 2008.

Palestine Today announced that Ghassan Alian, the Druze commander of the Golani Brigades, had died from his injuries. In fact, his injuries were upgraded to "light" and he is anxious to return to the front.

And, of course, the Arab media is not reporting any casualties among the mujahadin.

Those who rely on Arab media reports for their accusations are looking even more idiotic than usual.

Ma'an continues to publish unverified reports from Ghassan Daghlas

From Ma'an:

Israeli settlers attacked with stones dozens of Palestinian vehicles in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian official said Sunday.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settler activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that the settlers pelted vehicles with stones and empty bottles smashing windshields of dozens of vehicles.

Hmmm..Ghassan Daghlas' name sounds familiar.

In February, he claimed that Israelis burned six Arab cars. It was a lie - they were burned by Arabs in a dispute and then evidence was fabricated to blame Israelis.

In October, he claimed that religious Israeli Jews cut down 100 olive trees - on Shabbat.

He did the same here. And he claimed that settlers torched a car on a Shabbat here.

Once he claimed that Jews put up a poster in the middle of an Arab village calling to destroy a mosque. Yet for some reason he could not produce a photo of these posters.

In 2010 he claimed settlers uprooted 200 olive trees, and again the report was found to be false - although Jewish crops were burned at that time!

A quick search shows that Ma'an quotes Daghlas over 200 times since 2008, and yet I do not recall ever seeing a any independent evidence of any of his anti-Israel charges. Almost never are there photos of these alleged attacks, even though everyone has a camera on their cell phones nowadays.

But he is quoted, time and time again, uncritically, even though many of his accusations are proven lies.

The funniest part is that Ma'an illustrates some of his false accusations with photos of Arabs attacking Jews!

PalArabs again claim religious Jews cut down olive trees - on Shabbat

From Ma'an:

Extremist Jewish settlers chopped down more than 100 olive trees Saturday morning in Deir Sharaf village south of Nablus, a Palestinian official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settler activities in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that settlers from Shave Shomron settlement stormed olive fields in the al-Ghazan neighborhood of Deir Sharaf and destroyed more than 100 trees. He highlighted that the attack came a few days before the olive harvest.

Shavei Shomron is a religious Zionist community, and the idea that they would cut down olive trees on Shabbat is ludicrous.

In these times when essentially everyone has a camera and even video camera on their mobile phones, why do we never see video of these olive trees being chopped down? It takes quite a while to cut down a single tree, let alone a hundred - Mr. Daghlas could have gotten thirty reporters there before they were done.

Then again, when the media uncritically parrots obvious lies, what incentive does any Arab have to tell the truth?

"Price tag" attack last week was fabricated by Arabs

From Ma'an last week:

Armed settlers attacked a village south of Nablus overnight Wednesday and torched six cars, a Palestinian Authority official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, said dozens of residents of the Esh Kodesh settlement outpost entered Qusra village firing heavily.

They torched six cars, belonging to Raed Musbah, Abed Taher, Yousef Odeh, Yasser Abu Rida, and Nashat Fawzi, Daghlas told Ma'an.

Villagers confronted the settlers, Daghlas said. A large force of Israeli soldiers entered the village and also clashed with locals, he added.

An investigation has determined that the Palestinian Arab claims are fabricated.

A police investigation revealed that residents of the village burned the vehicles, and accused the residents of the nearby outpost, Esh Kodesh, of the act. Six vehicles were burned a day after severe clashes erupted between residents of Korsa and residents of the nearby outpost, and the Palestinians were quick to also invite the media and human rights organizations who expressed shock at the act attributed to settlers.

Police said that the “evidence” supplied by Arabs that Jews had undertaken the attack – an Israeli identity card left at the scene – was fabricated. The ID card belonged to a soldier who, on the night of the attack, was stationed far from the Arab village. He had apparently lost the ID card, with Arabs finding it and holding onto it, apparently for an event just like the one that occurred in the village last week.

(h/t None)