EXPOSED: UN Media Official Responsible for False Photo Tweet

March 12, 2012 16:22 by Simon Plosker

Our guest post from the IDF revealed how a photo, allegedly depicting the results of Israeli air strikes in Gaza in recent days, has been proven false.

The offending photo was originally tweeted by Khulood Badawi.

Read Top Tweet on Gaza Proven False for the full story on how this photo was exposed.

Khulood Badawi happens to work for the OCHA – the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs where, according to a UN Contact List, she works as an Information and Media Coordinator.

A Google search reveals that Badawi has a history of activism in a range of pro-Palestinian non-governmental organizations, some of them radical and politicized. While this background may not in itself disqualify her from a career with the UN, it is absolutely unacceptable that a UN employee working specifically on dissemination of information to the media and public tweets malicious and false information to libel Israel.

HonestReporting’s CEO Joe Hyams comments:

Once again, we are bearing witness to the extent that organizations such as the United Nations have failed to vet the integrity of their employees. The disgusting actions of this individual – invoking the imagery of a dead child to slander Israel – exposes once more the abject failure of NGOs to ensure a basic work ethic and commitment to fair and impartial conduct on the part of its employees.

The halo-effect enjoyed by the UN, where the public trusts the integrity of its staff and its Mission, demands higher professional standards than we are seeing. The UN owes the public, no less than this young girl’s family, an apology. The immediate dismissal of Khulood Badawi on the grounds of incitement is expected.

Powerful images such as these have a deep impact on public opinion. Where Israel is trying desperately to defend more than 1 million of its civilians from the incessant murderous rain of Gazan rocket terror – it is abhorrent that a UN employee working for a body concerned with humanitarian welfare would have more concern for manipulating public sentiment than a true desire to protect innocent human life. Badawi cares more for the lie, than for life.

Call on the UN to take the appropriate action by contacting the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs through its Contact page - http://www.unocha.org/contact

This appalling breach of integrity on the part of a UN employee deserves to be widely exposed. Please consider clicking +1, Tweet, Like or linking to this article on your blog or website. Getting the UN to take note is only effective when this article reaches a large readership, especially through the Google search engine. Creating a link to this page with the text “UN Employee Exposed Over False Photo Tweet” helps this article reach the first page search results for the term.

Follow the full story of Khulood Badawi’s false photo tweet:

Sign the Petition Demanding Badawi’s Dismissal

120 Comments

120 Comments → “EXPOSED: UN Media Official Responsible for False Photo Tweet”

Cheryl

6:14 pm

Mar 13, 2012

An honest mistake?!?! It looks like a duck to me.
This man who is in a position of responsibility at the UN is guilty of intentionally spreading misinformation in an attempt to manipulate public reaction to the current and very dangerous situation.

Agree or Disagree: 2 0

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ruth cohen

7:37 pm

Mar 13, 2012

a honest mistake by un and arabs
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
ok great joke honest un hah hah ah ah ha ha ha
ok now lets be honest for a change
real honest not arab lie cover up honest

hello world my name is jerusalem, israel. i live here like my ggggggggsaba king david and the others written in the bible that you claim to honour. ha ha ha ha ha. yah great honour.

hello mohammed,ahmed,jihad, whatever forever. i am in my home, and you go away and leave me alone in peace or i will help you to get the hell out of here. clear.

honest mistake arabs yah like the thousands of others. all honest yah yipee as long as they are honestly bashing israel

i want my army to go and wipe the terror of the map once and for all. many israelis feel that way. and mothers. daughters,who are aiding and abetting the murder of jews are fair game. that is war. war means everyone dies. and our army trying to protect the good baddies and the bad baddies is allowing our nation to be in fear and problems and daily rockets on our people.

enough. enough you throw a rocket you die – you help to throw the rocket by your words,money or support you are accountable to me. and i dont like murdering thugs hurting my nation.

more important there is a god running the show. watch your words world, watch out your day of reckoning is coming and the same arabs you weep for will turn their terror on you in europe too. oh wait they are already doing it.

so tell me was it an honest mistake when they killed you guys, did they think you were jews maybe so therefore they are innocent.

Hot debate. What do you think? 5 3

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Top Tweet on Gaza Proven False | The Conservative Papers

12:59 am

Mar 14, 2012

[...] HONESTREPORTING UPDATE: Khulood Badawi is exposed as an employee of the United Nations. Read the full story here - EXPOSED: UN Media Official Responsible for False Photo Tweet [...]

Agree or Disagree: 1 2

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- Yosef
  
  4:50 am
  
  Mar 14, 2012
  
  You are missing the point. If israel killed this child it was an accident caused by Hamas, but for the UN to use this old photo is a shame.
  
  Agree or Disagree: 3 3
  
  Reply
Daniel

2:05 am

Mar 14, 2012

Did Israel kill this child or not? Does it really matter when it happened?

- just sayin’

Hot debate. What do you think? 3 10

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- Jerry
  
  4:17 am
  
  Mar 14, 2012
  
  No, Israel did not kill this child, at any time, then or now. Does it matter to you? Or do you blame Israel anyway?
  
  Hot debate. What do you think? 5 3
  
  Reply
Twitter pictures from Gaza prove to be another Palestinian "big lie" | Ottawa Citizen

2:06 am

Mar 14, 2012

[...] for her original tweet. Badawi has yet to do so, but that is perhaps to be expected. According to Honest Reporting, Badawi is the information and media coordinator for the United Nations Office for the Coordination [...]

Agree or Disagree: 0 0

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If one man’s meat is another man’s poison, is one man’s truth another man’s lie? | Lineman

3:03 am

Mar 14, 2012

[...] other primary prevaricator on this point. And considering that this other person is listed as an Information and Media Coordinator for an agency of the United Nations, shouldn’t we be looking for some sort of disclaimer from that august [...]

Agree or Disagree: 2 1

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Countering Islamo-prop: When will the world observe Arab apartheid week? — Winds Of Jihad By SheikYerMami

3:19 am

Mar 14, 2012

[...] A photo of a dead child from Gaza (see above) that has been retweeted more than 300 times in the last 24 hours turns out to be from 2006 and to have nothing to do with any Israeli action in Gaza. The originator of the photo is a United Nations media employee. [...]

Well-loved. Agree or Disagree: 5 0

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Twitter pictures from Gaza prove to be another Palestinian "big lie" | Jerusalem and Israel

4:11 am

Mar 14, 2012

[...] b&#965t w&#1110th th&#1077 goal &#959f &#1110&#1109 maybe t&#959 b&#1077 expected. According t&#959 H&#959n&#1077&#1109t Exposure, Badawi &#1110&#1109 th&#1077 information &#1072n&#1281 media coordinator f&#959r th&#1077 United [...]

Agree or Disagree: 1 0

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Mr. Light-Bright

4:39 am

Mar 14, 2012

An example must be made of the U.N. employee. Oh how this world’s sense of justice is perverted.

Of course if: Khulood Badawi, showed true repentance, then mercy may be given. Make her FEAR judgement (losing her job, and shame), then let mercy be granted only by the Israeli community (who have the power to keep her job, and change her outlook).

Agree or Disagree: 0 2

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dovid

4:45 am

Mar 14, 2012

Can’t send a message either. So expected

Agree or Disagree: 1 0

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ruth cohen

6:17 am

Mar 14, 2012

did israel kill the child or not
what a totally wicked comment
lets see
china and how many millions wiped out there by the biggest mass murderer of all times
russia and agains same question – second largst mass murderer of all times
africa
where to start
millions wiped out all over the place and most of you geniuses never heard of it
asia
europe
america
all free of blood of course
only israel killed a child, or maybe did not who knows
oh you know bright spark

and jews lets see centuries of being wiped out, holocaust, attacked daily in her tiny little land

again who killed who
the hatred is so disgusting it makes me feel like puking you out but one thing i am in my country and aint going nowhere and i dont need your permission and i am not going to need your favours

wickedness is indifference,lying,manipulating to reach a goal. i am israel. i do not forgive or forget. anyone who wants to harm me is going to pay. you still have time to repent if you know what the word means

Agree or Disagree: 3 1

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reporthonestly

8:20 am

Mar 14, 2012

I REST my case! Check this out: In propaganda battle, a spokesperson for the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office tweets old photo, and tells a journalist: “I am not a news agency nor am I a reporter. The photo is genuine and illustrates the tragic condition in the south” http://bit.ly/yRP6BF

Agree or Disagree: 0 0

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William James

11:42 am

Mar 14, 2012

Let me get this straight – she reposted something on her private twitter account? Who on earth fact-checks stuff they post on twitter? God knows I’ve reposted stuff that turned out to be false on there – not because I was manipulating the facts, just because I believed what I was told. Thankfully no one was ridiculous enough to try to suggest that those things were a reflection of my work or posted in any official capacity.

Seriously, I’m all for honesty in reporting – but private twitter just ain’t official reporting. If I post that I support Manchester United on facebook, it doesn’t mean that I’m saying my company are all reds fans. Get real!

Agree or Disagree: 1 1

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- Evan Low
  
  3:52 pm
  
  Mar 14, 2012
  
  No, but if your company had serious grevience with your claimed affiliation to Manchester United they could arguably discipline you for it. That is what we would expect of the UN in this case.
  
  I don’t think the majority of us here are trying to claim that the UN is full of Jew-haters, just that they should not accept the actions, public or private, of their employees who openly proclaim an ideology that is fundamentally at odds with the stance of the UN.
  
  Agree or Disagree: 3 1
  
  Reply
  - William James
    
    7:32 pm
    
    Mar 15, 2012
    
    How is mistakenly (let’s at least agree that this is a mistake and not intentional. Occam’s razor and the fact that we’ve all been there…) posting a photo of a dead child demonstration of an ideology that is at odds with the UN? I think generally they’re against child deaths. It’s not like she said “death to the jews” or anything like that. It’s not like no children have been killed as a result of Israeli actions (doesn’t matter who you decide to blame for the whole thing.
    
    Let’s flip this. If a Jewish UN employee mistakenly posted a photo saying “another victim of Palestinian rocket attacks” but it turned out it was a fall-death, would you really think it acceptible for him/her to lose her job over it? *Really?*
    
    Agree or Disagree: 1 0
    
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Cheryl

12:29 pm

Mar 14, 2012

Nothing is really “private” anymore… not when you post it on twitter or write it on FB walls & tenement halls for the eyes of others, i.e., the “public”, to see. This photo was a lie. And whether private or public is libelous.

The woman who posted this dated photo & erroneous caption works in the field of media communications where one is taught how to use to use words & imagery to manage perceptions. With the professional training required for the position this woman holds at the UN, I believe she knew exactly what she was doing….
Her posting this false image demonstrates a lack of judgment and integrity. And if she does this on twitter… what other lies has she put out there professionally?

This woman is another Helen Thomas and has got to go.

Agree or Disagree: 1 1

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Me

12:46 pm

Mar 14, 2012

It’s here own personal twitter account and she’s not representing the UN or any body when she wants to post about anything. Plus it’s still an old victim of the Israeli terrorists on Gaza children but the publisher didn’t verify the date. .Please stop making a big deal out of it.

Agree or Disagree: 2 2

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- Evan Low
  
  3:47 pm
  
  Mar 14, 2012
  
  It may be her own personal twitter account but it shows what she is willing to project to the world, if Obama twittered that he hated Arabs on his ‘own personal twitter account’ the world wouldn’t accept that as an excuse. This is a much smaller scale, but still a similar point.
  
  Second, half the point of why her post is so wrong is that indications from the original photo are that this girl fell off a swing, and therefore wasn’t a victim, either old or new, of Israeli ‘terror’.
  
  Therefore, both reasons you use for it being no big deal are false, and it is in fact a big deal.
  
  Agree or Disagree: 3 1
  
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BRIZINI

5:06 pm

Mar 14, 2012

“Stop massacre in Gaza – Support to Khulood Badawi”

Agree or Disagree: 1 1

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Cheryl

5:13 pm

Mar 14, 2012

There is NO “massacre” in Gaza! Another lie.

Agree or Disagree: 2 2

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Keiner fühlt sich für falsches Foto einer UN-Mitarbeiterin verantwortlich « Medien BackSpin

9:27 pm

Mar 14, 2012

[...] Gestern deckten wir auf, dass UN-Medien verantwortlich für die Verbreitung eines Tweet-Fotos sind. [...]

Agree or Disagree: 0 0

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laila

10:35 pm

Mar 14, 2012

Nayif Qarmout was killed by an Israeli missile yesterday at 9:30 A.M. He was 14 years old. Five other teenagers with him were injured, Tamer Azzam, 16, Mu’ayyad al-Qanou’, 18, Hani al-Qanou’, 16, Salih Qarmout, 14; and Sa’eed al-Attar, 14. The boys were reportedly playing football in a playground when the missile struck

Agree or Disagree: 1 1

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- Yosef
  
  10:45 pm
  
  Mar 14, 2012
  
  happy you know their names, maybe ask Hamas not to shoot rockets from populated areas?
  And while you are at it call Asad and ask him to stop killing 7500 of his own people. Israel is left with no choice but to defend its people. The hell with Hamas.
  
  Agree or Disagree: 1 1
  
  Reply
Cheryl

10:49 pm

Mar 14, 2012

It’s especially unfortunate young people are killed or injured, but this is off topic.
The issue is whether an individual has the right to lie/use deception/slander others.

Agree or Disagree: 0 0

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