Since the early 2000s, a specific problem has repeated itself in coverage of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians: real suffering exists, and gets reported — but so does staged and manufactured suffering, often accompanied with lethal accusations of intent, war crimes, crimes against humanity.

This isn't a fringe conspiracy theory — it's a documented industry, sometimes called 'Pallywood,' that produces footage specifically designed to be picked up by international outlets. Some of it dramatizes real events; some of it is invented outright. Either way, it gets treated as news because Western reporters have proven reliably willing to run it without independent verification.

The effect goes beyond any single fake story. When manufactured victims get more camera time, more emotional framing, and faster global distribution than real ones, actual victims — of this conflict and of jihadist violence elsewhere — end up crowded out of a media landscape that increasingly can't tell the difference, or doesn't check closely enough to find out.