On October 12, 2023, Russian language media utyug.info, as well as Russian and Georgian speaking Facebook accounts circulated a claim that a famous Israeli pastry shop had baked a cake shaped like a gallows with the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, depicted as hanged from it. These claims purportedly traced their origin to an article in The Jerusalem Post, and the bakery in question was identified as the Tel-Aviv-based pastry owned by Avi Melomedson. According to the claim, Avi Melamedson expressed his anger, alleging that the high level of corruption in the Zelenskyy government had led to the transfer of Ukrainian weapons to Hamas. The supporting evidence included a video and screenshots allegedly sourced from the pastry shop’s Instagram story, featuring The Jerusalem Post’s logo.
The claim that Melamedsonpastry created a gallows-shaped cake with President Zelensky being hanged is disinformation. Avi Melomedson, the proprietor of Melamedsonpastry, has explicitly refuted these claims in correspondence with “Myth Detector.” Besides, there is no such story either on the official website or on the social networks of “The Jerusalem Post.”
“Myth Detector” contacted Avi Melomedson, who, in written communication, categorically refuted the disseminated information, asserting that it was a deliberate provocation intended to fuel discord, and that his bakery had no involvement in such an event.
Video disseminated online uses the old branding of “The Jerusalem Post”. It should be noted that the current logo and font of TJP is different.
“Myth Detector” undertook a thorough investigation to ascertain the accuracy of these allegations. No posts or announcements related to any such event were discovered on the official Facebook and Instagram pages of Melamedson or on his website. Furthermore, no such news was found to have been posted by The Jerusalem Post or on its social media accounts.
About the source:
The Facebook account “Eduard Jishkariani” frequently shares posts containing anti-Western and anti-Ukrainian information. The disinformation he spreads has been verified by Myth Detector in the past as well (1, 2, 3).
Subhan Hesenli
Myth Detector Laboratory
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