Anti-Palestinian Israeli TV station i24 interviewed an ‘Arab’ Parisian about the ‘riots’ in France this week. Israeli interviewer Neria Kraus told viewers that his name was ‘Ali’ and that his parents were from Baghdad. But ‘Ali’ was, in fact, an Israeli from the Tel Aviv suburb of Kfar Shalem.
‘Ali’ just happened to speak Hebrew – hardly surprising when his real Israeli name is Hezi Gangina. – told the interviewer that the protesters are violent:
It’s a mess, they break things. It’s terrible. Radicals.
He went on to say that he felt unsafe in Paris, before adding – supposedly out of nowhere – that Israel always tells the truth. And when asked about Palestine flags and ‘Free Palestine’ banners at the protests, he claimed Palestine has no relevance and agreed with the so-called ‘journalist’s “Am Israel Chai” – ‘long live Israel’:
Shoddy con
The shoddy trick was quickly seen through by Jewish French-Israeli Itai Cellier. Cellier posted the clip, commenting (translated from Hebrew):
I’m dying here. Remember when I tweeted yesterday about the nonsense Neria Kraus said on Galgalatz about the riots in Paris? Here she is interviewing “Ali – a Paris resident” (“his parents are from Baghdad” 🤣). Except it turns out to be Chazi Gangina from Kfar Shalem… 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Unbelievable. It’s also obvious they spoke in Hebrew before the interview. Delusion.
Gangina even posted the clip to his own Instagram. Cellier tagged Kraus and asked for an explanation. Despite the obvious set-up in Hebrew and the nonsensical content of the interview, Kraus denied any wrongdoing:
You’re lying without shame, and I strongly recommend that you delete this false tweet. This is about a man who burst into the broadcast and kept clinging to me again and again while I was being interviewed, and he addressed me in Arabic. It was absolutely not an interview that was agreed upon in Hebrew, or at all. Pro-Palestinians are using your pathetic tweet to spread conspiracies (which you fabricated) about Israel. Delete it.
Cellier was unmoved, asking Kraus whether she had also demanded that her broadcaster delete a later X post confessing that the interview was fake – claiming that it had been a ‘prank’.:
Fellow Hebrew speaker Orit Rosenfeld chipped in with an observation that Kraus knew he was called ‘Ali’ without seeming to need to ask:
I just wondered, how did she know that his name is Ali at the end of the interview? She said, thank you Ali. But she didn’t ask him what his name was.
Tongue apparently firmly in cheek, Cellier replied:
This is a guy who burst into her broadcast and latched onto her, y’know. Don’t ruin her narrative with tough questions.
Either way, Israel has a definite interest in – and proven track record of – fanning Islamophobia in the UK and Europe. So it’s ‘interesting’ that an Israeli ‘Parisian Arab’ happens to find his way onto TV to insist “Israel is always right” and the rioters are ‘radical’ Palestine supporters.