A photo of a young Jewish woman who was brutalized, raped and murdered during the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel has sparked outrage after it helped The Associated Press win a prestigious award last week.
The photo was taken by AP photographer Ali Mahmud during the violence that left more than 1,200 Israelis dead, most of them civilians.
For 2023 — a year in which photographers worldwide had 365 days to document global events — a photo of a 22-year-old woman dead in the back of a truck was spotlighted in an award given by the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism.
The university’s Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute honored the AP for Team Picture Story of the Year in its Pictures of the Year International competition.
In doing so, it used the image of 22-year-old Israeli-German citizen Shani Louk’s body bound and in the back of a truck by Hamas terrorists as the top photo.
The school’s decision led to a harsh backlash on social media.
“I am DISGUSTED. SHOCKED and ENRAGED that this @AP image – of a murdered Shani Louk z”l from October 7th was given picture of the year!!” X user Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll said in a post on X. “You don’t even say her name?? You don’t even say that she was slaughtered by terrorists from Gaza? This is the value of Israeli women to you??
“You are the most vile of human beings to profit and reward such behavior. May you rot in hell with these terrorists and may the entire world see the emptiness of your souls.”
Israeli lawmaker Danny Danon posted, “This photo captures Hamas terrorists desecrating the body of Shani Louk, may her soul rest in peace. Yet the @AP news agency proudly received an award for it. Their continued pride in their photographers’ ‘work’ and involvement in the atrocities is shameful.”
Many others expressed similar sentiments.
This is how Shani Louk’s family asked for her to be remembered. Smiling and alive.
The biggest photojournalism competition in the world decided to trample on the family’s wishes in favor of giving a photo of Shani’s mutilated body a prestigious award. She wasn’t even named in… pic.twitter.com/y4L4R35bdA
— Hen Mazzig (@HenMazzig) March 28, 2024
This is just wrong and sick…… how the f*** does a disgusting Hamas photographer win an award for documenting the evil murder of Shani Louk…… https://t.co/Ckb8ddW4OY
— Honourable Andy Wigmore JPs (@andywigmore) March 28, 2024
After the barbaric photo disrespecting slain Shani Louk was named the photo of the year by @RJI, we are responding on social media by sharing photos of how Shani’s family wants her to be remembered. May the perpetrators of her heinous murder be held fully accountable.… pic.twitter.com/H7c9uKx6Tm
— Brooke Goldstein (@GoldsteinBrooke) March 28, 2024
This is how we choose to remember the beautiful Shani Louk.
We will not allow her memory to be trampled by the inhuman thugs celebrating the AP photo of her tragic murder.
Thank you @HenMazzig for reminding us! pic.twitter.com/Iflt6JW2UM
— Emily Schrader – אמילי שריידר امیلی شریدر (@emilykschrader) March 28, 2024
The AP photographer who accompanied jihadi barbarians on their October 7 invasion of Israel has been awarded a prestigious photography prize.
He is being celebrated for taking this photo of murder-rapist-terrorists with the brutalized and contorted body of Shani Louk.
Seems to… pic.twitter.com/EqTRkLuBev
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) March 28, 2024
The journalism school shared the photo on its Pictures of the Year International page on Instagram but took it down amid the intense backlash.
The Jerusalem Post reported Louk was confirmed to have died at the hands of Hamas terrorists after a fragment of her skull was compared with a DNA sample she left behind.
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CNN spoke to her family about her death last year while reporting she was one of many women who had “experienced unfathomable horrors” before being killed.
Some women were beheaded after they were systematically raped by as many as 10 militants, the New York Post reported.
It said Louk had been dismembered after the photo spotlighted in the Pictures of the Year International awards.
