Pro-Israel Con Artist Banned From Own Organization
By: Emily K. Schrader
Pro-Israel activists have expressed outrage over a con artist who created the facebook page Hatikvah. The group was apparently established to encourage fellow activists and keep them up-to-date on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but instead, page creator Alain Horoit , a European from Antwerp has used the group to make hundreds of dollars off activists.
According to a former co-worker who was unaware of his scams at the time, Horoit, who also runs the facebook page “Mr. Never Give Up,” garnered a following of more than 27,000 people on the Hatikvah page and then began advertising for a book written by the organization called “Everything About the History of the Palestinians.”
Although many trusted that the book was legitimate because it was listed on Amazon and priced appropriately at twenty dollars, buyers were furious upon receiving their copy because the “history” was 300 blank pages. Although some saw this as a funny joke because the Palestinians are an “invented people”, most didn’t find wasting twenty dollars on 300 sheets of paper as amusing.
The current manager of the Facebook page, Miriam Young, who does social media for many Israel advocacy organizations and works for StandWithUs, is the individual who broke the story. After working with Horoit for only a short time (and for no pay), Young quickly realized something wasn’t right and Horoit was indeed a scam artist.
Young explained the problem she had with simply leaving the organization and refusing to work with Horoit in the future: “While his name was nowhere on the page, mine was everywhere…he required me to sign our posts. He could write anything and make it look like it was from me. He could even blame the whole book on someone else, as the only author listed was 'Hatikvah'."
Miriam Young
Young ultimately was left with a choice between allowing her name to be entangled in a scam and assist in alienating 27,000 supporters of Israel, or ban Horoit and other page managers from the page in an attempt to rebuild it. Young opted for the later.
Since Horoit had been receiving royalties from the book and was, “spamming multiple times a day asking people to buy his book,” he was quite displeased by being kicked out of his own organization, along with others that were in on the scam. However, none of this seems to phase Young who stated that, “They're upset about money but I'm upset about morality.”
Young stated it was important to save the page because, “These 27,000 people followed our pro-Israel news and trusted it enough to buy our offered product…and this left them very unhappy, discouraging them from further support and advocacy.”
In a time when Israel is waging an uphill battle against haters of Israel and has looming threats on the horizon such as Iran, Israel activists don’t have to worry about con artists like Horoit thanks to Young. Kol HaKavod to Miss Young for her bravery in confronting and exposing a scandal.
Geert Wilders IFA Friends
GWIFA: Initially we didn't know who was behind this "book scam", but now it's been clarified and we're happy to keep on referring people over to the "Hatikvah" page on Facebook.
Quote from the article ...
Pro-Israel activists have expressed outrage over a con artist who created the facebook page Hatikvah. The group was apparently established to encourage fellow activists and keep them up-to-date on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, but instead, page creator Alain Horoit , a European from Antwerp has used the group to make hundreds of dollars off activists.
According to a former co-worker who was unaware of his scams at the time, Horoit, who also runs the facebook page “Mr. Never Give Up,” garnered a following of more than 27,000 people on the Hatikvah page and then began advertising for a book written by the organization called “Everything About the History of the Palestinians.”
Although many trusted that the book was legitimate because it was listed on Amazon and priced appropriately at twenty dollars, buyers were furious upon receiving their copy because the “history” was 300 blank pages. Although some saw this as a funny joke because the Palestinians are an “invented people”, most didn’t find wasting twenty dollars on 300 sheets of paper as amusing.Pro-Israel Con Artist Banned From Own Organization
Pro-Israel Con Artist Banned From Own Organization By: Emily K. Schrader Pro-Israel activists have expressed outrage over a con artist who created the facebook page Hatikvah. Th...
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