Befuddled Hamas mistakes film set for new settlement
West Bank temporary tent encampment established for shooting of children’s movie draws Gaza terror group’s ire
A children’s entertainer filming a lighthearted movie for young kids sparked the ire of the Hamas terror group on Wednesday when tents used in the filming were mistaken for a new West Bank outpost.
Jerusalem-based Yuval Hamebulbal, or “Yuval the Befuddled,” the stage name of 44-year-old entertainer Yuval Shemtov, had set up a small collection of colorful tents amid the brush and trees of a rocky hillside in the northern West Bank near the settlement of Ariel.
“The settlers are establishing a new concentration of settlements in the Salfit area,” Hamas tweeted in alarm on Wednesday, according to a Hebrew translation by Channel 2.
The appearance of the tents set Palestinian social media aflame with speculation that settlers had established a new outpost in the area between the settlement of Ariel and the Palestinian city of Salfit.
But a Channel 2 reporter who was sent to the site discovered temporary tents set up for the filming of scenes for the upcoming children’s movie “Yuval, Hero in the Clouds.”
The production company behind the film told Channel 2 that the location was chosen for its combination of mountainous terrain and greenery, not as a political statement.
Hamas seems to have realized the mistake. The original tweet was deleted from the group’s Twitter feed.
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The Times of Israel Community.