Al Jazeera Arabic shared on a Thursday post to X, formerly Twitter, the results of a fake poll that claimed 47% of Israelis support sexual assaults on Palestinian prisoners, users of the social media platform charged, citing a screenshot allegedly posted to the Qatari media giant’s account.
“Al Jazeera just posted the fabricated poll that Rashida Tlaib promoted yesterday,” X user Eitan Fischberger, a communications expert and analyst as well as a former IDF staff sergeant, wrote.
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
Fischberger’s comment referred to US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, who shared the false poll to her X account on Wednesday.
"Between serving as a de facto mouthpiece for Hamas, employing terrorists, and now sharing clearly fabricated antisemitic polls, it's far past time for people to understand how dangerous this so-called media outlet can be," Fischberger told The Jerusalem Post.
The alleged Al Jazeera report was based on an image of an N12 poll that had been doctored.
The original poll asked respondents if they agreed that the government relied on supporters of terrorism.
'Blood libel'
Pro-Taiwan activist Drew Pavlau also shared the screenshot of the Al Jazeera post, accusing the Qatari state-owned media giant of “blood libel.”
Al Jazeera Arabic posting a completely fake poll to smear all Israelis as rapists. Blood libel. pic.twitter.com/HEB01HDZ9y
— Drew Pavlou (@DrewPavlou) August 9, 2024
“The purpose of this blood libel published by Al Jazeera is to dehumanize Israeli Jews and manufacture consent for more violent attacks against Jewish civilians in Israel,” Pavlau told the Post.
Former Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Avi Mayer also shared the image, slamming Al Jazeera Arabic for sharing an “absolute lie” with the account’s 22.7 million followers.
Mayer added in a subsequent post that despite some of those who had shared the fake poll, apparently including Al Jazeera Arabic, removing the item from their platforms, “anti-Israel accounts are continuing to circulate it.”
The fake N12 poll first received widespread social media attention after Rutgers University professor Noura Erakat shared it on her X account.Erakat later admitted the poll was fake and called it a “mistake” to have shared it without verifying. Erakat, however, added that it was understandable that “one would take this poll to be true in light of [the] video of gang rape of a Palestinian detainee.”