One of this year’s photos of the long-standing “Photojournalism” competition is of the photographer/terrorist Ali Mahmoud, who accompanied the Hamas terrorists on the seventh of October while they went on a murder, rape and kidnapping spree of Israelis. The award committee, which was awarded on behalf of the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, described the massacre as described by war heroes. The photograph in which he documented the abduction of the body of the late Shani Lok won first place
The photo depicts the moments after Shani’s abduction from the Nova Party area. The terrorists in the van surround her in jubilation and kneel around her as she lies down and unconscious. As mentioned, the photographer of this photo won an award in the team picture story of the year category.
In the award committee’s reasoning, they described the campaign of murder and rape in an almost heroic tone – “Hamas rulers launched a multi-frontal attack on Israel”, “the fighters”, as they defined them, “penetrated the fortified border in several places by air, land, and sea and caught the country off guard During a major holiday. Israel’s response was harsh for Gaza and its residents. Heavy airstrikes killed thousands of Palestinians.”
A lot of criticism was spread throughout the network from the moment the win was announced. Yosef Haddad tweeted that: “This photographer is actually a terrorist and he does not deserve an award but deserves to stand trial at the Hague Tribunal as a co-terrorist in the October 7th massacre. Shame and disgrace!”.
