World up in arms over phony Gaza hospital telethon that falsely vilified Israel

Actually, the world doesn’t care.

I had to hear about it from Kelsey who heard about it from The Forward which heard about it from the JTA which actually unearthed this story.

I guess the JTA is more useful than bloggers.

In any case, in a nutshell the story is this: in Greece, a nationally broadcast telethon for a Christian hospital in Gaza ran for several hours. The telethon claimed the hospital was destroyed by Israel. It ran for some days and even received public support from Greece’s leaders.

The telethon included recorded video messages by Greek President Carolos Papoulias and Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyianni, along with a parade of Greek politicians, singers, public personalities and trade unionists. Many used the telethon to cast broadsides at Israel.

The campaign raised $1.67 million, according to telethon organizers, who said little Greek children had gone so far as to break their piggy banks to offer $14 to Palestinians in need.

There was no such hospital. Apparently it was fictitious.

But Israel got beat up in the telethon and the press anyway.

As for the false story, It’s a little like the birth of Jesus…nobody is taking responsibility. A virgin birth indeed.