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Al Jazeera Reports Fake Poll Claiming Half of Israelis Support Sexual Assault of Palestinian Prisoners
The Al Jazeera Media Network logo is seen on its headquarters building in Doha, Qatar, June 8, 2017. Photo: REUTERS/Naseem Zeitoon
The Qatar-based news network Al Jazeera reported a fake poll on Thursday claiming nearly half of Israelis support sexually assaulting Palestinian prisoners who are in Israeli jails.
The news outlet posted the fake poll on its Arabic language X/Twitter account with a custom graphic and a caption reading, “47% of Israelis support sexual assaults on Palestinian prisoners, according to a poll by Israel’s Channel 12.”
It has since deleted the tweet.
BREAKING: Al Jazeera just posted the fabricated poll that Rashida Tlaib promoted yesterday.
Al Jazeera — and its Qatari overlords — are the enemies. pic.twitter.com/Llf5puzbmN
— Eitan Fischberger (@EFischberger) August 8, 2024
The specific origin of the fake poll is unknown, but an image of it has made its way around anti-Israel social media circles within the past week.
Many users pointed out that it should have been obvious the poll was a fake because the question was clearly pasted in later and was not a part of the original image.
Nevertheless, it was posted by professors at American universities and even a member of the US Congress.
Rutgers University professor Noura Erakat posted the fake graphic with the caption, “When you tell a society it has a right to commit genocide, surely they believe they have the right to rape.”
US Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) retweeted Erakat’s post.
A @RutgersU professor posted a digitally altered photo accusing Israelis of supporting a soldiers right to rape Palestinians. As close to an actual blood libel as you’ll get in my opinion. It was RT’d by @RashidaTlaib, a US congresswoman.
Hope it is deleted w an apology soon. pic.twitter.com/i8FhmtDyUD
— David/Dovid Bashevkin (@DBashIdeas) August 8, 2024
Erakat later deleted the post and wrote, “Rep Tlaib trusted me & posting this wo cross checking was my mistake.”
She continued, “But surely u understand how one would take this poll to be true in light of video of gang rape of a Palestinian detainee & Knesset + public debate on whether such rape should be ok. THAT is the disgrace, Alex.”
In recent weeks, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has arrested guards at the Sde Teiman detention facility who allegedly sexually assaulted a Palestinian prisoner. Video later came out of the assault taking place behind a wall of guards apparently aimed at making sure the cameras did not catch it.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller called the allegations “horrific” and said, “There ought to be zero tolerance of any sexual abuse, rape, of any detainees, period.”
The detention facility has come under scrutiny for months after CNN reported on whistleblowers who revealed that torture and humiliation of prisoners allegedly took place there. It may soon be shut down and Israeli documents show that only 28 prisoners remain in the facility.
This is not the first time Al Jazeera has promoted misinformation it has later had to retract.
In 2019, it produced a video claiming the Zionist movement misrepresented the Holocaust. It was posted on Al Jazeera’s younger, more hip channel called AJ+ with the caption, “Gas ovens killed millions of Jews…So the story says. How true is the #Holocaust and how did the Zionists benefit from it?”
Two journalists were suspended over the incident.
More recently, Al Jazeera in June reported on footage of a dog from the Oketz canine unit of the IDF appearing to attack an elderly Palestinian woman. The brutal scene sparked outcry against the IDF online and throughout the Arab world.
According to the IDF, however, the German Shepherd in the video was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists, who subsequently used it to film the attack before killing the animal and booby-trapping its body with explosives in the event that Israeli soldiers tried to retrieve their canine comrade.
The post Al Jazeera Reports Fake Poll Claiming Half of Israelis Support Sexual Assault of Palestinian Prisoners first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.