Shani Louk

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This is how Shani Louk's family asked for her to be remembered. Smiling and alive.

The biggest photojournalism competition in the world decided to trample on the family's wishes in favor of giving a photo of Shani's mutilated body a prestigious award. She wasn't even named in the caption.

Among the photographers honoured is Ali Mahmud, the AP freelancer who came under fire for logging photos during the early hours of October 7th, indicating previous knowledge of Hamas's brutal attack.

Photos showing violence and death can be newsworthy or important when they humanize the dead or galvanize the public. The "winning" photo does neither; it only further dehumanizes Shani, retraumatizes her family, and legitimizes Hamas's actions under the guise of journalistic neutrality.

No one should be rewarded on the backs of murdered women.

Rest in power Shani Louk, we'll remember you as the beautiful soul you were 💜

As for Ali Mahmud, it beggars belief that he is being celebrated for taking the photo of murder-rapist-terrorists with the brutalized and contorted body of Shani.

Seems to me he should be going to jail, not getting a prize.

The photo was taken in Gaza. While the attacks were getting started. These were some of the first pictures broadcast BEFORE official journalists arrived. There’s no way this photographer wasn’t involved, or informed about the attack. The fact he’s won a prize for it says everything we need to know regarding the world’s attitude to Jews and Israel.
By the way, if you don’t have sources/proof for “32000” innocent deaths (other than a terrorist organisation who can’t say how many hostages are alive or even where they are), then please stop bandying the number about as though it’s true.
Also, if you DO want to use that number then that’s less than 0.2% of the population of Gaza. Not exactly a genocide.

As a Jew I want you to know that there is no hate here towards you or your people. What’s happening in Israel and Gaza is horrible and the result of two failed governments, and a bunch of drugged up brainwashed terrorists.
It is not reflective of Muslims or Jews and it breaks my heart to see so much Islamophobia and antisemitism as a result of the situation. Please allow me to extend a hand of peace to you and your family and I hope that one day there will be unity and peace. Salaam Shalom.

The Nova festival was in Israel. This photo was taken in Gaza. No Israeli or Jew is permitted over the border into Gaza unless they’re being kidnapped. Whoever took this photo was already in Gaza, and in the right place at the right time. Please try not to talk about things that you have no actual knowledge about.

strange that....

@Scirocco I don't understand why it would be anything other than a good idea?
Is there anything that can be done to help?

Just go to the Muslim Board thread on site stuff and add your support. I’d always mistakenly assumed one already existed.

Thank you and Salaam Shalom. I pray for peace and healing for all of us.

Thank you for posting.

The photographer is an official photographer. He was registered as freelance with Associated Press and Reuters. He was there covering the music festival, which is a big event for the local area. When the festival was attacked, he followed the terrorists snapping photos- as that is his job- to record what is happening. At the time, no one knew Shani was already murdered thought she hoped she was unconscious and being kidnapped. That’s still written in the news reports that came out. He followed them into Gaza at great risk to document a crime in the hope Shani was alive and his photos would help the military rescue her.

The police and security that were at the festival they engaged with the terrorists while trying to evacuate the festival goers. Many lost their lives doing this. They too were just doing their job.

The photographer was investigated by the US and Israel in the aftermath because many had the same suspicions as you, but he was cleared of any association with or links to Hamas.

No Israeli or Jew is permitted over the border into Gaza unless they’re being kidnapped.

Permitted by who? It was chaos, there were no border security checks of checking ethnicity papers on October 7th by either IDF or Hamas.

During October 7th, the border between Gaza and Israel had been breached in over a dozen places. Hamas killed the IDF border security and observers on their way out of Gaza.

The photographer saw Hamas kidnapping Shani and followed in another vehicle taking photos as proof she was being kidnapped. He went as far as he could into Gaza, before having to turn around. He wasn’t in Gaza to begin with. He was covering the music festival and surprised by the attacks just like everyone else there.

Shani’s father has publicly stated he thinks the photo winning the award is a good thing as it will be “the face of an era” and his daughter will never be forgotten.

If you look at the photo, it was taken just over the border into Gaza in the agricultural buffer zone. It wasn’t taken “in the streets” of the urban areas inside Gaza proper. It was on a dirt, farm access road just inside a breach in the border wall.

He was there covering the music festival, which is a big event for the local area.

where are you getting this from please? I’ve looked and literally seen this nowhere. If anything, the implication appears to be he was Palestinian and came in with Hamas, hence why he was investigated for potentially having prior knowledge of the planned attack.

I have read this too. Is the photographer the same man photographed snuggling up to sinwar?

No, that photographer was Hassan Eslaiah and CNN severed ties with him.

He was not covering the festival. He’s a Palestinian called Ali Mahmud who was ready and waiting to document the events as they unfolded. He had no official “press” documentation or badges and also photographed abductees (including babies and children) being taken into Gaza. I repeat: he was not covering the festival. He is not an Israeli citizen. It’s highly likely he’s affiliated with Hamas.

Mahmoud was investigated purely because it was insinuated without evidence by an Israeli media watchdog called Honest Reporting, who is not a news organisation, that it was too much of a coincidence for a Palestinian to be in the right place at the right time. He was not investigated due to any evidence of suspicious movement from Gaza to Israel on October 7th.

The Associated Press published this update confirming the allegations were speculatory, and that Honest Reporting, once shown evidence the reporters were not involved were satisfied.
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-photographers-attack-200be1ba47361f1c1fc113cdaeb65d04

Media watchdog says it was just ‘raising questions’ with insinuations about photographers and Hamas
“The executive director of an Israeli media watchdog organization says it was simply “raising questions” by publicly wondering whether Palestinian photojournalists who documented the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel — and sent some of the first images of its aftermath to a watching world — had been tipped off in advance that it would happen.
The report by the group HonestReporting, however, had serious ramifications at a time of war.”
”It led two Israeli politicians to suggest the journalists be killed. Several of the world’s biggest news organizations — CNN, The New York Times, The Associated Press and Reuters — issued statements Thursday denying they knew about the attack ahead of time.”

Honest Reporting admitted it had no evidence and was satisfied the Mahmoud and a few other photographers were not involved:
”Gil Hoffman, executive director of HonestReporting and a former reporter for The Jerusalem Post, admitted Thursday the group had no evidence to back up that suggestion. He said he was satisfied with subsequent explanations from several of these journalists that they did not know.”

They didn’t have to retract their allegations as fake news because they’re not a news organisation:
““They were legitimate questions to be asked,” Hoffman said. Despite the name “HonestReporting,” he said, “we don’t claim to be a news organization.”

AP knew Ali Mahmoud as one of their freelancers and had worked with him before:
”It was clear that morning from the first launch of missiles from Gaza into Israel that something serious was happening, said Julie Pace, senior vice president and executive editor of the AP.
“It was a fast-moving development in a very small territory,” Pace said.
“We carried out a very typical news-gathering process when a big event, a big moment, is happening and we need to figure out what it is and inform the world about it,” she said. Part of that involves fielding calls from freelancers who have photos and video to offer.
Besides Masoud, the AP used photos that day credited to Hassan Eslaiah, Ali Mahmoud and Hatem Ali.”

The Times used some of the AP photos, including Mahmoud’s, and had this to say:
”The Times said the accusation that anyone at the newspaper had advance knowledge of the attacks or accompanied Hamas was “untrue and outrageous,” and put journalists in Israel and Gaza at risk. Rushing into danger in conflict zones already puts freelance photojournalists at risk, the newspaper said.
“This is the essential role of a free press in wartime,” the Times said in a statement. “We are gravely concerned that unsupported accusations and threats to freelancers endangers them and undermines work that serves the public interest.”

This has been proven to have been unfounded allegations that have since been withdrawn. See above.

There is a lawsuit inspired by the Honest Reporting allegations; so if there is any evidence of Hamas affiliation, it will have to be proven:
”The National Jewish Advocacy Center (NJAC) sued the Associated Press in February regarding the AP’s coverage of the October 7th attacks in Israel, alleging that the AP provided “material support for terrorism” by buying photos from Hamas-affiliated photographers.
The AP’s statement on the lawsuit vehemently denies the allegations, affirming that AP had no advance knowledge of the attacks, had no evidence at any point, including now, that freelance contributors have Hamas affiliation, and that any allegations to the contrary are reckless and dangerous.
“Documenting breaking news events around the world — no matter how horrific — is our job. Without AP and other news organizations, the world would not have known what was happening on Oct. 7,” the Associated Press says, establishing its continued commitment to documenting the world’s events, no matter how disturbing or awful they may be.
The Associated Press’ annual photo feature, “The year in photos: AP’s most memorable photos of 2023“, included Mahmud’s image plus numerous others showing dead bodies.”
https://petapixel.com/2024/03/30/pictures-of-the-year-sparks-controversy-awards-disgusting-war-photo-top-prize/

I still don’t get where you are getting the information that he was already there covering the music festival. If he was a Palestinian photojournalist, it is vanishingly unlikely that he would have already been there at the festival as a photographer.

Because I read a report saying that he photographed several live hostages being taken from the Nova festival, not just Shani Louk. It was only Shani’s truck he followed.

(He is not the videographer that videoed her body later in urban Gaza being paraded and abused.)

What have you based your “vanishingly unlikely” on? Over ten thousand Palestinians from Gaza were legally working in Israel on the morning of October 7th. Many ended up having to go to West Bank as they were trapped outside due to Hamas’ attacks.

Many Palestinian photo-journalists had passes to leave Gaza. They still are allowed some freedoms by Israel as Israel allows the ones in Gaza to leave Gaza for medical treatment in Egypt if they are wounded.

”…Without AP and other news organizations, the world would not have known what was happening on Oct. 7,” the Associated Press says,

Slow clap for the AP, it’s lucky their totally non-terrorist affiliated photographers were in the right place at the right time because no-one could really get a sense of what was happening from the videos and photos Hamas members themselves were posting all over the internet in real time.

My SM on Oct 7th was wall to wall horrific photos, videos and sound recordings reposted straight from the source, made by terrorists and victims alike.
Circulating a false story that Shani was still alive and being treated in hospital was pure Hamas psychological terrorism, which had its desired effect on the narrative and a gullible audience as now her tragedy and that loathsome image has been reframed in stories like this steaming pile of horse excrement:
At the time, no one knew Shani was already murdered thought she hoped she was unconscious and being kidnapped. That’s still written in the news reports that came out. He followed them into Gaza at great risk to document a crime in the hope Shani was alive and his photos would help the military rescue her.

Believe me when I tell you that no-one who saw the footage that day was under any illusion about the condition of the girl in the truck, later identified as Shani. It shows such disrespect to her memory and her story to present this revisionist fairy tale of Hamas propaganda.

What is being forgotten is that Shani Louk’s father, who is Israeli-Jewish, unlike both Shani and her mother, has approved the photo being used and supports it winning the award. Her mother hasn’t disagreed.

Her family’s approval matters more to me than your outrage.

Secondly, the award was from the Pictures of the Year International award in the Team Picture Story of the Year category for its photo essay “Israel and Hamas War,”was for a series of 20 photos covering the war, not for this one photo. In the series are more very graphic photos including ones with dead children: https://www.poy.org/81/14.html (WARNING - do not click the link unless you are ready to see many victims lying where they were killed and the faces of dead children/babies)

Pictures of the Year gave awards to other photo essay books on the Israel-Hamas war, also with just as graphic photos of victims of all ages and both sexes from the war

@25milesfromhome
”Believe me when I tell you that no-one who saw the footage that day was under any illusion about the condition of the girl in the truck, later identified as Shani. It shows such disrespect to her memory and her story to present this revisionist fairy tale of Hamas propaganda.”

It was the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs that reported on 31st October to CNN that Shani Louk had been kidnapped alive and then tortured to death inside Gaza. You are being unfair to call this truth of what was thought “stories like this steaming pile of horse excrement:”

Yes, Hamas lied about her being in a Gaza hospital recovering from a head wound; that is the Hamas propaganda you are referring to.

It is not Hamas propaganda to say many people, including the Israeli government, believed she was unconscious when in the back of the pick-up truck up to and even after she had been declared deceased.

31st October, 2023, CNN
”* *A 23-year-old German-Israeli woman who was kidnapped from the Nova music festival by Hamas militants on October 7 has been declared dead, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said.
“We are devastated to share that the body of 23 year old German-Israeli Shani (Louk) was found and identified,” the ministry posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.”
”Louk was attending the festival in southern IsraelFestival in a rural farmland area near the Gaza-Israel border on October 7 when Hamas breached the border between Gaza and Israel.
Louk was kidnapped at the festival and “tortured and paraded around Gaza by Hamas terrorists,” the foreign ministry statement said, adding that she “experienced unfathomable horrors.”
The bone fragment, combined with the circumstances surrounding the October 7 attack and video that appeared to show Louk unconscious on the back of a Hamas truck, led investigators to conclude these were her remains.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/10/30/middleeast/shani-louk-dead-israel-intl/index.html

@25milesfromhome
“Slow clap for the AP, it’s lucky their totally non-terrorist affiliated photographers were in the right place at the right time….”

They do seem to have a vast network of free lance and staff photographers that manage to capture photographic evidence of many attacks around the globe. Almost like they are professionals.

BBC reporters seem to have this “luck” too, after all John McManus was in the right place at the right time to witness and capture the London Bridge terror attack.

I don’t feel any outrage so no worries there. This is also neatly sidestepping the issue of regurgitating Hamas propaganda.

I agree with Nissim Louk that it’s an incredibly important photo that will symbolise this era and inform the future but it’s also been utilised and disseminated in some really disrespectful ways.

POYI isn’t exactly an unknown organisation and I think you’ll find most people are aware of the context for the award and the inclusion of the photo in that category. POYI led with it on their Instagram carousel announcing the winners, back before they started putting graphic image warnings on their posts.