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By JTA STAFF<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (JTA) — There was no Israeli-American real estate developer named Sam Bacile, and the 100 Jews he claimed had financed his anti-Islam film were fictitious as well.\u00a0Both fabrications were offered to the media apparently to hide the true identity of the Egyptian Christian from Southern California who has since been fingered as the main figure behind the film that sparked violence across the Muslim world.<\/p>\n
Still, there are those who continue to cling to the false notion that Jews were behind the film. Days after the Jewish connection was shown to be a fiction, the English-language website of Iran\u2019s Press TV was repeatedly citing the disproved reports that the film was made by Jews. Meanwhile, Iran\u2019s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a statement blaming \u201cevil Zionists\u201d and the U.S. government for the film.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are greatly concerned that this false notion that an Israeli Jew and 100 Jewish backers were behind the film now has legs and is gathering speed around the world,\u201d said the ADL\u2019s national director, Abraham Foxman, in a statement issued on Sept. 13. \u201cIn an age where conspiracy theories, especially ones of an anti-Semitic nature, explode on the Internet in a matter of minutes, it is crucial for those news organizations who initially reported on his identity to correct the record.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foxman added that even after it became clear that the filmmaker was not Jewish, \u201cnews organizations across the Arab world and anti-Semites and anti-Israel activists have continued to describe him as such.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his own statement on Sept. 13, Iran\u2019s supreme leader said that the film \u201cshowed the fury of the evil Zionists at the daily-increasing radiance of Islam and Holy Qur\u2019an in the present world.\u201d\u00a0Khamenei said that the \u201cprime suspects in this crime are Zionism and the US government,\u201d and demanded that American politicians make those behind the film \u201cface a punishment proportionate to this great crime.”<\/p>\n
Khamenei did not, however, refer specifically to the filmmaker\u2019s identity or fabrications regarding his financing.<\/p>\n
A 14-minute trailer for the crudely produced film, \u201cInnocence of Muslims,\u201d ridiculing Islam’s Prophet Muhammad and posted to YouTube has been cited as the reason for the outbreak of attacks on U.S. and other Western diplomatic posts in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
The violence began on the night of Sept. 11, when heavily armed men stormed the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. The assault caused the deaths of the country’s American ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, and three members of his staff. The deadly attack followed angry protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, where rioters breached the compound\u2019s walls and destroyed its American flag.<\/p>\n
Media outlets quickly tracked down a California man who gave his name as Sam Bacile and was reported to have produced, directed and written the film, “Innocence of Muslims.” He claimed to be an Israeli-American real estate developer hoping to help Israel with the film, which he said was financed with $5 million from 100 Jewish donors.<\/p>\n
While his claims were widely reported in the media — including by JTA — they quickly came under scrutiny and were shown to be false.\u00a0For starters, there was no such person by that name involved in film or real estate, nor was that name known to the Israeli government or in California\u2019s Jewish and Israeli communities.<\/p>\n
A self-described Christian activist from Southern California who was a consultant to the film told The Atlantic\u2019s Jeffrey Goldberg that Bacile was a pseudonym and he was not Israeli, and likely not Jewish. The consultant, Steve Klein, who has a history of anti-Islam activism, said that those behind the film were largely Evangelical Christians and included some Egyptian Coptic Christians.<\/p>\n
An actress who appeared in the film — who said she and other cast members were misled about its true message — said the producer was Egyptian.\u00a0The Associated Press, one of the outlets that along with The Wall Street Journal had interviewed the producer and reported his false claims, on Sept. 12 traced the cell phone it had used to contact the filmmaker to the Southern California home of a Coptic Christian who admitted to involvement with the film\u2019s logistics. While the man, 55-year-old Nakoula Bassely Nakoula, initially denied being Bacile, his middle name and a known alias closely resembled the fake name used by the filmmaker.<\/p>\n
A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP on Sept. 13 that authorities had concluded that Nakoula was the key figure behind the film. Nakoula, who has served time in prison on bank fraud and identity theft charges, was questioned and released by federal probation officers. The terms of his probation prohibit him from using Internet-connected devices without the approval of his probation officers.<\/p>\n
Federal authorities told ABC News that Nakoula admitted to producing the film with his son. Authorities say he told them that he wrote the film\u2019s script while in prison, that the film cost between $50,000 and $60,000, and was financed by his wife\u2019s relatives in Egypt.\u00a0Nakoula has reportedly gone into hiding.<\/p>\n
After the initial attacks on U.S. diplomatic compounds in Egypt and Libya, the attacks on diplomatic compounds spread to other Muslim countries, including Yemen, Tunisia and Sudan.<\/p>\n
In Jerusalem last Friday, hundreds of Palestinians clashed with Israeli police after leaving prayers on the Temple Mount. According to The Jerusalem Post, police said the youths, some of whom threw stones, were headed to the city\u2019s U.S. consulate and that stun grenades were used to try to disperse them.<\/p>\n
In Tel Aviv on Sept. 13, a small group of Muslim protesters demonstrated peacefully outside the U.S. Embassy.<\/p>\n
Taleb a-Sanaa, an Arab member of Israel\u2019s Knesset, reportedly said the same day that “Zionist elements” are trying to encourage hatred of Islam “out of political considerations.\u201d<\/p>\n