The person in the middle of the human tug of war is an Israeli West Bank settler, with Israeli police on one side and the settler’s comrades on the other. There is no Palestinian child to be seen.
MARY ALEXANDER • 20 JULY 2024
“Settler savages try to tear a Palestinian child apart in the occupied West Bank,” reads the caption for a photo circulating on social media in South Africa and elsewhere since late June 2024.
The photo shows men pulling at the legs of a small person, horizontal and off the ground, while others – obscured by onlookers – pull at the person’s arms. A man in uniform is at left.
On Facebook, the claim has been posted* as a screenshot of a now-deleted X post with comments such as:
- “They will tell you all the Arab hate them and want to anhilate them. If it’s true maybe there ia a strong reason to this….”
- “This is what Zionism has turned them into.”
- “When basic human standards are violated…. The barbaric nature of the Zionist Israeli settlers….”
Israel is a country in the Middle East and the world’s only Jewish state, established within Palestine in 1948. Today, what remains of Palestine is the tiny Gaza Strip to the west and the larger West Bank in the east, so named because it lies on the western bank of the Jordan river.
Since 1967 Israeli settlements have steadily encroached on Palestinian territories, particularly the West Bank. The United Nations human rights commissioner has reported that some 700,000 Israeli settlers are “living illegally in the occupied West Bank”.
On 19 July the UN’s international court of justice gave an advisory opinion that Israel’s presence in occupied Palestinian territories was illegal, and that Israel was obliged to end its presence, evacuate all settlers and stop new settlements.
But does the photo really show settlers trying to “tear a Palestinian child apart in the occupied West Bank”?
Border police halt illegal occupiers during 2009 settlement freeze
A reverse image search reveals that the photo is almost 15 years old, and the person being pulled at is an Israeli settler, not a Palestinian child.
The photo is part of the Getty Images collection of stock photography, credited to AFP photographer Yehuda Raizner and dated 13 September 2009.
Its caption reads: “Israeli settlers try to pull a fellow settler as he is dragged away by border policemen during clashes at the entrance to the illegal outpost of Havat Gilad, west of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, after Israeli police tried to confiscate a truck containing material to build a new house.”
It adds: “The United States has been trying for months to secure an Israeli settlement freeze while pressing Arab states for reciprocal concessions to clear the way for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian talks suspended in late December.”
The 2009 attempt at a settlement freeze was just one of many over decades.
There is no Palestinian child in the photo. The claim is false.
* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.
Report published by Africa Check on 30 July 2024