The following story is a great example of how social media can be a great tool for evil in our society. It began with a tweet that certainly got me going….
I wondered why Mr Messi and his fellow Argentinian players were being so selective. Were they going to refuse to play China, Iran and North Korea – or is it only Israel that gets selected for such ‘special’ treatment? And then I discovered that I was wrong…not so much in the reaction but because the tweet was a lie – that has been sent all over the world – and retweeted by politicians within the UK, who I hope will have the decency to tweet out the correct story. This is as follows.
The Argentinian team were looking forward to going to Jerusalem for their world cup preparations where it was rumoured that the Pope was going to send a special emissary to conduct a special mass for the team. Messi, the team captain … said: “I really want to visit the Holy Land and for Argentina this will be an important professional and spiritual journey and I’m convinced that coming to Israel ahead of the World Cup will do us good.”
The last time this happened was in 1986 – when Argentina went on to win the world cup in Mexico.
The Palestinian Football Association urged fans to burn pictures of Messi and replicas of his shirt if he played against Israel in Jerusalem. (Palestinian FA chief Jibril) Rajoub declared a campaign against Argentina and particularly Messi, noting he has millions of fans across the Arab and Islamic world, Asia and Africa. “He’s a big symbol so we are going to target him personally and we call on all to burn his picture and his shirt and to abandon him. We still hope that Messi will not come” … A small group of youths wearing Palestine soccer scarves demonstrated outside the representation office and attempted to set fire to an Argentinian flag.
On the 6th of June Argentina team announced they were cancelling the match. For Palestinians … there was jubilation. They praised the Argentine team for taking a stand against Israel … Jibril Rajoub, president of the Palestinian Football Association, said … he did not make any threats and was involved only in peaceful protests …A senior official at the Argentine Football Federation says the national team decided to cancel its match with Israel after receiving threats from the Islamic militant group Hamas. … The official (spoke) on condition of anonymity due to safety concerns …
Then came this tweet on Tyc Sports
“As a UNICEF ambassador I cannot play against people (Israel) who kill innocent Palestinian children. We had to cancel the game because we are humans before footballers.”
It’s a complete fake – as the Times of Israel reported
This is what Messi actually said (on 25th August 2014 – four years ago!)
As a father and a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, I am terribly saddened by the images coming from the conflict between Israel and Palestine, where violence has already claimed so many young lives and injured countless children.Children did not create this conflict, but they are paying the ultimate price. This cycle of senseless violence must stop.We must reflect on the consequences of military conflicts and children must be protected.
This is an example of how fake news works. It is also an example of how intimidation works and how Hamas works. And sadly it is an example of how so many of our politicians, celebrities and journalists work. I wonder how many of them who re-tweeted the original tweet have now tweeted out the truth and apologised.
I am sorry for simply believing what I read about Messi. This is my apology. Feel free to pass it on so that people can know the real story.
Amazing. The lies people will tell. Quite disgusting to be honest.
I wonder what Eusebius would have ”Tweeted” had he had a cellphone back in the day?
The mind boggles at the mischief he could of got up to.
But of course, as a Christian, such a stunt would have been beneath him.
I’m sure you would agree, David, yes?
😉
@ Arkanaten “I’m sure you would agree, David, yes?”
I’m sure David does not have to agree with your hypothetical nonsense! But, look at the state of your ‘question’ Ark! “You’re sure he would agree”. If you are ‘sure’ he would agree, you don’t need to put a question mark at the end of the sentence. What you should have said was “David Robertson agrees with this hypothesis”. Then leave it up to him to agree or disagree with you! The ‘yes?’ you have included is oxymoronical.
To quote you – “The mind boggles at the mischief he (Eusebius) could ‘of’ got up to. But of course, as a Christian, such a stunt would have been beneath him!”
Is that your vernacular where you say ‘of’ instead of ‘have’? Where are you from?
You are suggesting that if Eusebius were alive today he would have got up to all kinds of mischief using his cell phone and Twitter. I suppose that is to imply that he did get up to all kinds of mischief and ‘stunts’ in his day. That is quite a slanderous claim to make about a historical figure, not here to defend himself, and so influence people’s opinion of Eusebius without putting his work on trial at the same time, for all to see. It’s a sort of ‘tampering with the witness’ statement Ark!
Lastly, your use of ‘yes?’ is designed to influence the reader into thinking that it is not a yes or no answer that is required but simply a ‘yes’. The use of the question mark is to ridicule anybody who would dare question or say ‘no’. It is the typical twisted language of you and your ilk which is laced with threat and intimidation!
I’m getting a bit fed up trolling you Ark! I hope you realize soon that you cannot fight God because He will always win. You are wasting your time and currently mine. I’m not getting paid for this David!!
On a positive note David, and this surprised me, when I spoke to my son about the Messi tweet he said ‘everybody’ knows that’s a fake tweet. I have recently asked my eldest son’s opinion about news items etc and he says that most of them are fake and everybody knows it and that it is virtually impossible to know what is really going on. The youth are ahead in some ways David! I never knew it before but the Millennials and Generation X have an awful lot more to offer each other than we might think. It’s a matter of getting the conversation going and showing them they can trust us. Because that is one thing they are robbed of. Whom can they trust?
Fake news is real, unfortunately. Many people aren’t as dogged and astute as you are to catch it and set it right. Good job!
I’ve just had a look at how the Guardian has reported this. There’s no mention of the fake tweet (maybe that’s elsewhere) nor is there any mention of the real reason that Argentina have called off the match. There’s no mention of Hamas, at all. Anybody reading the article could easily get the impression that Argentina called off the match because of ‘political pressure’.
“Argentina have cancelled their final World Cup warm-up match against Israel, striker Gonzalo Higuaín said on Tuesday, as political pressure grew before Saturday’s scheduled fixture in Jerusalem.”
Various Palestinan representatives are quoted but nobody from Argentina is quoted. A partial report is almost as fake as a deliberately false report.
What a fake article about fake media bit like yours here..well done Argentina for standing upto the dirty murdering lying fake Jew scum,khazars in reality which is a cancer the world that needs to be isolated,shunned and eradicated!! WELL DONE ARGENTINA,WELL DONE CELTIC SUPPORTERS ,WELL DONE TO RONALDO who refused to exchange shirts with their players saying he does not and won’t swap shirts with MURDERER’S and ASSASSINS…so you can stop wandering as to why you Jew paid shill !!!
I allow this comment here purely and simply for one reason – if anyone ever doubted the existence of the evil of anti-semitism this post is proof otherwise. Its this time of shrill evil ugliness that led to the first attempt to ‘eradicate’ the Jews. You should be ashamed of yourself.