You might not know his name but you’ve probably seen his face. Saleh Aljafarawi is a known Hamas-linked influencer who has been all over social media where he praises Hamas, pretends to be a journalist, hospital worker, and pretty much anything to get sympathy for Palestinians. But despite what was known about Aljafarawi, PolitiFact came to his defense on Thursday to quibble over his being described as a “crisis actor” by those who know his connection to Hamas.
PolitiFact decided to assign “Spanish misinformation reporter” Marta Campabadal Graus the task of aiding Aljafarawi because Gaza influencers were totally in the Spanish media sphere. And she gave the accusations that he was a “crisis actor” a “false” rating.
“PolitiFact’s review of Aljafarawi’s social media accounts and background did not reveal evidence of him being a ‘crisis actor’ or faking the scene at the hospital,” she proclaimed, ignoring his connection to Hamas and without providing evidence that the hospital scene was real.
Seemingly trying to feign objectivity, she noted: “We have also fact-checked claims that Israeli children on CNN were ‘crisis actors’ after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.” Which they said were “false” as well.
As NewsBusters previously reported about Aljafarawi, he has been dubbed “Mr. FAFO” and “Mr. Pallywood” (a combination of Palestinian and Hollywood) on social media by those who call him out. He posts his propaganda videos to his Instagram account which has over three million followers. He’s pretended to be a Hamas fighter in a music video, a radiology tech in a hospital, a foster father, a member of the press, and a rescue worker, among other roles. He even put out a video of himself praising Hamas rockets that were launched at Israeli civilians.
But while Campabadal explored his social media accounts, she didn’t make the obvious connection that he’s a Hamas propagandist. “The ‘freedom fighter’ image of Aljafarawi with a gun was taken from a music video that was deleted a few weeks ago. In the music video, he was posing as a singing Hamas fighter,” she admitted.
But the fact of the matter was that he would have needed to get all the gear and weapon he was wearing in the video from Hamas since they controlled that kind of stuff.
Campabadal found nothing suspicious about Aljafarawi’s social media activities:
The other photos of him as a "foster father," "tour guide" and as an "American idol" are from his social media accounts, in which he describes himself as a 26-year-old Palestinian living in Gaza. Before the Israel-Hamas war started after Hamas attacked sites in southern Israel Oct. 7 attack, Aljafarawi was already a social media influencer, but his content was mostly footage of his travels or music videos.
She also said “he is not a journalist,” but failed to mention that he faked being a member of the press on his Instagram account. In one post, Aljafarawi videoed himself wearing a “press” flak jacket and reporting from the scene of an alleged Israeli airstrike.
MSNBC regular Malcolm Nance was among the first to call out the network for promoting Aljafarawi’s propaganda. “‘Content creator/Actor’ Yes for HAMAS,” he scolded one of his commenters. “People are so ridiculously ready to excuse a dedicated HAMAS propaganda player they refuse to believe their own eyes.”
