{"id":1843,"date":"2016-05-12T09:51:51","date_gmt":"2016-05-11T23:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/?p=1843"},"modified":"2016-06-01T19:48:30","modified_gmt":"2016-06-01T09:48:30","slug":"a-panama-papers-hoax-claims-the-saudi-king-funded-benjamin-netanyahus-election-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.khanfactor.com\/blog\/?p=1843","title":{"rendered":"A Panama Papers Hoax Claims The Saudi King Funded Benjamin Netanyahu’s Election Campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

The fake story claimed the Saudis gave Bibi $80 million.<\/p>\n

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Several English-language websites in the Middle East and at least one big American blog fell for a fake story that claimed Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud financed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?’s re-election campaign to the tune of $80 million.<\/h2>\n
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\"Several<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Google News \/ Via news.google.com<\/a><\/div>\n

The reports all used the same fake quote attributed to Isaac Herzog, a member of Israeli parliament and leader of the Zionist Union party, which sits in opposition to Netanyahu.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cIn March 2015, King Salman has deposited eighty million dollars to support Netanyahu\u2019s campaign via a Syrian-Spanish person named Mohamed Eyad Kayali,\u201d Herzog was quoted as saying. \u201cThe money was deposited to a company\u2019s account in British Virgin Islands owned by Teddy Sagi, an Israeli billionaire and businessman, who has allocated the money to fund the campaign Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.\u201d<\/p>\n

The information was attributed to a new Panama Papers<\/a> leak. The Saudi king was named in the Panama Papers, but it was in relation to his purchase of a luxury homes and a yacht<\/a>. The Netanyahu claim is false.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The fake story appears to have originated with theMiddle East Observer<\/i> website. It published a story<\/a> on May 8 that consists of the fabricated Herzog quote and several paragraphs of background information on the Panama Papers.<\/h2>\n
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\"The<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Middle East Observer \/ Via middleeastobserver.org<\/a><\/div>\n

The outrageous story may have struck some as plausible given that there have beenreports<\/a> alleging closer ties between the Saudis and Netanyahu\u2019s government.<\/p>\n

The Middle East Observer<\/i> says<\/a> it aims to \u201cproduce neutral and objective news from the Middle East,\u201d and that it is headquartered in Turkey. BuzzFeed News contacted the website for comment but has not heard back.<\/p>\n

We also contacted Nathalie Bes\u00e8r, a Swedish foreign journalist and consultant who was recently listed as the owner of the MiddleEastObserver.org domain name.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sold the site several months ago,\u201d she said in an email, and added that she had told the new owner that the story was fake.<\/p>\n

Bes\u00e8r said her current contact at the site is \u201cMr Hamed,\u201d and did not reply to a follow-up email asking for his full name and contact information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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As of today the original fake story has generated over 25,000 Facebook interactions. There have only been a few efforts to debunk the hoax. Israeli journalist Yossi Melman tweeted that Herzog himself said the quote was fake.<\/h2>\n
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Follow<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/span>Yossi Melman<\/span> \u200e@yossi_melman<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Labor leader Hertzog denies to me unsane websites’ reports that he had said that Panama Papers would reveal Bibi got money from Saudi King<\/p>\n