The deception was hardly subtle. Yet for several hours, it proved enough to inflame parts of Moroccan and Spanish social media. Hicham Jerando and Maâti Monjib shared a photograph showing a young man with a severe shoulder injury, presenting him as a Moroccan migrant struck by stones thrown by a member of the Auxiliary Forces. In reality, the image has nothing whatsoever to do with Morocco. It depicts Yousef Al-Najjar, a young Palestinian injured during an Israeli bombardment in Gaza.
Gazan journalist Amr Tabash documented the extent of Al-Najjar’s injuries on Instagram. He suffered a comminuted fracture of the humerus and a fractured shoulder blade. An open wound extended to his armpit and back. The young man was transferred to a hospital in Egypt, where reconstructive surgery saved both his arm and his life. Nothing in this tragic ordeal has any connection to Morocco.
The manipulated image did not circulate solely through the accounts of Hicham Jerando and Maâti Monjib. The Spanish news outlet El Confidencial also used the same photograph to illustrate an article published on August 3, 2026, claiming that “paramilitary forces deployed by Morocco” had “brutally attacked certain migrants at the border” (sic). Such carelessness comes as little surprise from a publication where Ignacio Cembrero continues to write. The Spanish “journalist” has covered the Maghreb for decades, and his reporting on Morocco has repeatedly drawn criticism for its perceived bias. His treatment of Moroccan affairs generated considerable controversy during his years at El País and later El Mundo, before he joined El Confidencial, where he continues to fill its Maghreb section with one-sided accounts of the Kingdom.
Hicham Jerando is no stranger to manipulation. A small-time businessman with a controversial past offline and an anti-establishment firebrand online, he runs the YouTube channel Tahadi from Montreal, presenting it as a platform exposing corruption in Morocco. His videos led to a conviction for defaming a Moroccan judge and lawyer, resulting in a fine of 10,000 Canadian dollars and a one-month prison sentence. Morocco’s Judicial Police also suspect him of extortion and blackmail, carried out with the assistance of members of his own family. The whistleblower image he has carefully cultivated stands up poorly when measured against his own judicial record, on both sides of the Atlantic.
Maâti Monjib likewise carries a lengthy judicial record. The academic has previously faced prosecution in Morocco on charges of money laundering and fraud in a case linked to the use of funds received from international organizations. For years, he has repeatedly targeted the Kingdom’s institutions, while continuing to portray himself as a victim whenever offered a public platform.
