REPOST: Honest Reporting on Mr. FAFO
Why I’m Reposting
It’s been too long since I’ve mentioned HonestReporting, an organization doing great work in an era when fake news thrives and journalism seems deader than my Tamagotchi.
While HonestReporting covers serious subjects, and death is certainly no laughing matter, Mr. FAFO was someone the internet collectively laughed at. He was living proof that the title “journalist” means less than “freshman journalism major,” at least when it comes to Gaza.
But this story isn't just about an infamous propagandist repeatedly being labeled a journalist. It's about how violence within Gaza, often between rival gangs, somehow becomes Israel's fault. And not in a "Why isn't the US doing something about the Crips and Bloods?" kind of way. More like, "The Turkish gang killed the Egyptian gang member, but actually they're innocent freedom fighters murdered by Israel. Don't ask questions."
It's sad how distortion passes for solidarity rather than delusion.
Read the original HonestReporting article here or below.
Al Jazeera Inverts Reality in Ode to Mr. FAFO
Al Jazeera is at it again, turning Mr. FAFO from a Hamas propagandist killed by rival Palestinians into a journalist killed by Israel.
By Chaim Lax; October 13, 2026
Key Takeaways:
Saleh Aljafarawi, also known as Mr. FAFO, was a Hamas propagandist who was killed by rival Palestinians, yet Al Jazeera insinuated that he was a bona fide journalist who had been murdered by Israeli forces.
Al Jazeera’s reinvention of Aljafarawi is the latest example of how the Qatar-backed media outlet spreads misinformation in order to demonize Israel and whitewash Palestinian terror groups.
Like Mr. FAFO, Al Jazeera takes Hamas propaganda and repackages it as legitimate news, misleading millions of media consumers around the world.
Al Jazeera is at it again, spreading misinformation and anti-Israel hate to its millions of followers on social media.
This time, the Qatari state media outlet published a post mourning Saleh Aljafarawi on the anniversary of his death.
Referring to Aljafarawi as a “Palestinian journalist” who was killed “just days after a ‘ceasefire’ agreement between Israel and Hamas,” Al Jazeera insinuating that Israeli forces were responsible for his death, in contravention of the ceasefire agreement between the two combatants.
The problem with this characterization? Aljafarawi was not a journalist and he was not killed by Israeli forces.
[Images above are from: https://x.com/HonestReporting/status/2109615307069264339]
Here’s a quick reminder on who Saleh Aljafarawi actually was.
Aljafarawi was a social media influencer and Hamas propagandist who was dubbed “Mr. FAFO” (an acronym for F*ck Around and Find Out) on social media due to the juxtaposition of his posts celebrating Hamas’ terror invasion of southern Israel on October 7 and later ones of him crying over Israel’s retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip.
Throughout the war between Israel and Hamas, he became a source of mockery due to his appearances as a doctor, a journalist, a combatant, and a wounded patient in pro-Hamas propaganda films that had gone viral on social media.
However, while these videos were rightly mocked for their blatantly fake performances, some fell for the propaganda and donated to charity campaigns that Aljafarawi headed. Unsurprisingly, the man who spent two years deceiving his social media followers was later accused of pocketing the millions of dollars that had been donated by his gullible followers.
On October 12, 2025, Mr. FAFO “found out” for the last time when he was killed while accompanying Hamas terrorists into combat against members of the anti-Hamas Doghmosh clan in Gaza City. He was possibly accompanying the Hamas unit as a cameraman, filming the fighting for future propaganda purposes.
Salah Aljafarawi was clearly not a journalist (but he played one on TV) and was not killed by Israel.
However, this did not stop Al Jazeera from spreading these lies about Aljafarawi, incriminating Israel while whitewashing his actual activities over the past two years of war.
Should we be surprised?
Throughout the war and before, Al Jazeera has been one of the primary sources of anti-Israel misinformation in both the traditional media and on social media.
Some examples of the misinformation that Al Jazeera packages as legitimate news include the absurd allegation that thousands of Palestinians were “evaporated” by Israeli “aerosol bombs,” the assertion that Israel is needlessly waging a war of destruction against Gazan hospitals, the debunked claim that Israeli soldiers were raping Palestinian women in Gaza City’s Al-Shifa Hospital, and the allegation that Israel was starving Palestinians in Gaza.
Al Jazeera’s anti-Israel/pro-Hamas crusade goes far beyond just misrepresenting terrorist propaganda as legitimate news – the media outlet is accused of actually employing Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists as journalists.
These include such Al Jazeera stars as Anas Al-Sharif (accused of being a commando in Hamas’ elite Nukhba force), Hamza Al Dahdouh (accused of being a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s electronic engineering group), Hosam Shabat (accused of being a Hamas sniper), and Mohammed Washah (accused of being a Hamas senior commander in an anti-tank missile division).
(source: https://honestreporting.com/al-jazeera-inverts-reality-in-ode-to-mr-fafo/)
No wonder that Al Jazeera misrepresented Saleh Aljafarawi’s life and death on social media – both he and Al Jazeera used the same modus operandi: spreading pro-Hamas and anti-Israel propaganda to the masses, no matter how false and distorted it is.
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Thoughts?
If I wanted to play devil’s advocate (I don’t), I’d admit that I no longer know what even qualifies someone as a journalist. It used to involve some integrity and a reluctance to lie. When the New York Times openly admits that verification isn't their priority, and plane hijackings come with bizarre quotation marks, perhaps a Hamas propagandist qualifies after all.
Even the HonestReporting piece acknowledges that Al Jazeera—the semi-banned, semi-news outlet—has hired Hamas and Islamic Jihad members. So, technically, they're paid to be journalists. Case closed?
I guess I’m a journalist! I’ll add it next to fitness model, data analyst and the other titles I do not actually qualify for.
But the bigger story is how absolutely everything becomes Israel's fault. No surprises there. In recent weeks, congenital conditions have been blamed on Israel rather than genetics, income inequality around the world has been pinned on Israel, and recent riots in France have somehow become Israel's doing.
Everything. And I mean everything. When you've got a scapegoat this convenient, why bother with details?
