War in Gaza: Palestinian refugee in Canada targeted by disinformation campaign about her appearance
Online footage of the reunion at Toronto airport quickly turned into a humiliating situation for her. Pro-Israeli accounts mocked her physical appearance, exploiting it to deny the mass malnutrition observed in the Gaza Strip.
A viral video, which has been viewed more than 300,000 times across various platforms, has prompted comments from internet users who falsely suggest that the 50-year-old woman has just left Gaza. "Have you seen what this woman looks like?" one asked, suggesting that she was not malnourished.
The UN estimates that more than two million Palestinians are at risk of "widespread starvation" in the devastated territory, where Israel is widely criticized for its strict control over the entry of humanitarian aid. Images of sick and emaciated Palestinian children have sparked international outrage.
The Hebrew state denies causing a famine and said at the end of July that it was not responsible for the chronic food shortage.
The online comments Faiza Najjar and her family have faced are part of a larger trend. Hosts on Channel 14, a right-wing television station sometimes described as Israel's version of Fox News, have ridiculed "obese" mothers for stealing their children's food.
Having never claimed to have suffered from hunger in Gaza, Faiza Najjar says she is devastated to be part of this disinformation campaign. “As a mother, it really devastated me,” says Faiza Najjar, who has been living in the suburbs of Toronto for just over a year.
"Some people still have the audacity to mock them, even though they have suffered, lost everything and nearly died," she sighs, discouraged, recalling her daughters. They and their children "slept in tents, hungry, under the noise of bombs."
Her grandchildren have also been targeted online for their seemingly healthy bodies. According to Faiza Najjar, her family received medical care and food before flying to Canada. Mert Can Bayar, a researcher at the University of Washington, said the posts targeting Faiza Najjar are "just one element among many" that contribute to this misleading online narrative.
Last month, Toronto's mayor removed a video from Instagram showing her welcoming Palestinians to Canada because of the offensive comments made against their families. Once again, people's physical appearance was used to refute claims of malnutrition and starvation in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier this month, Grok, the chatbot built into X, sparked a similar backlash when it mistakenly claimed that a recent AFP photo of a malnourished girl in Gaza was from 2018 and taken in Yemen.
This is reminiscent of the false allegations that emerged a few weeks after the war began that Palestinians had staged their injuries, notes Valerie Wirtschafter, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. This phenomenon "distracts from the real humanitarian damage," she explains.
