Authors
Claim
Palestinians are using makeup to portray themselves as victims and shift the blame onto Israel.
Fact
Makeup artist Mariam Salah provided assistance in a medical training exercise by the French charity, Doctors of the World in 2017. This viral video does not have any connection to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
In the aftermath of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, many false claims and old videos have gone viral on various social media. One such video, showing a makeup artist applying cosmetics to a group of individuals to create the illusion of injuries sustained in accidents or bomb explosions, is going viral on social media. The video is being widely shared on X and Facebook and users claim that Palestinians are using makeup to portray themselves as victims and shift the blame onto Israel. The post can be viewed by clicking here. | Archive Link
Multiple users, including verified accounts on platform X, have shared this video with the same claim. Those can be viewed here, here and here.
Numerous Facebook users have posted the viral video, with similar assertions. The posts can be viewed here & here.
Fact Check/Verification
In order to ascertain the fact of the viral video, we conducted a Yandex reverse image search. During this process, we came across several Web Links & YouTube links which carried the viral video. One such video link in the Hebrew language published on February 14, 2019, revealed that the video is not recent and has been surfing on the internet for a long time. The video has been captioned as “Pallywood Behind the scenes, doctors of the world. Watch how the Palestinians fake wounds and serious injuries and blood with makeup in order to shock the world with fake victims, To receive donations and show how bad Israel is. next time you see shocking injuries from Gaza think again, share the truth.”
From this video we got a Full Frame screen grab and with that we conducted another Google & Yandex Reverse Image Search. During this process, we came across the original source of the video in TRT World. Where we found a report published by the channel with the description – “There are not many film productions in the Gaza Strip. But that didn’t stop makeup artist Mariam Salah from following her dream. She taught herself to make fake blood for Palestinian films breaking into a business traditionally run by men.”
As per TRT World commentary, the artists were simulating fake injuries on actors participating in a project by the French charity Doctors of the World (www.medecinsdumonde.org/en).
The video can be seen here.
After exploring the Instagram profile of the makeup artist Mariam Salah, we noticed a range of makeup designs presented on parts of the body such, as hands, legs, faces and even fingers. These artistic creations often portrayed types of injuries.
Newschecker has reached out to her for information about the video, she clarified, “The claims made about this video are not accurate, and the footage is actually quite dated. What you’re seeing is known as SFX Makeup, a special effects makeup technique. It was created as a medical simulation tool. Our group of makeup artists collaborates with doctors to facilitate the study of medicine, especially in war and emergency scenarios.”
We received the claim through our WhatsApp Tipline (9999499044) for fact-checking, and upon investigation, we found the claim to be false and unrelated to the recent Israel-Palestine conflict.
Conclusion
Thus, our investigation reveals that the viral video is not recent and has been available on the internet since 2017. The video is related to a medical training exercise by the French charity, Doctors of the World, where a Palestinian Women Make-up artist came forward with breaking the barriers, and not related to the recent Israel-Palestine conflict.
Result: False
Our Sources:
1. Conversation with the Artist in the video Mariam Salah.
2. Youtube post published by TRT World, dated March 2, 2017
3. Report published by l Love Israel, dated February 14, 2019
4. Report published by Keep.me, dated 21 May, 2021
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