A fake 100-dollar bill with the image of Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
- TEL AVIV - After threats were made against Israel by Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a stack of fake 100-dollar bills with his image printed on them were reportedly found in the Upper Galilee.
The discovery was made near a daycare center in Sdeh Eliezer, an Israeli village of 700 inhabitants near the Golan Heights and Lebanon. During a routine inspection, a guard found the stack near the fence of the daycare center. On the back of the bills there was writing in Arabic and the image of a dead fighter. The atmosphere in Galilee is very tense in this period, due both to ISIS threats and to fears that Hezbollah will retaliate for the killing in Damascus (allegedly by Israel) of its military ally Samir Qantar. The guard took the matter to the police, who soon found other similar banknotes in several spots in the area between the Lebanese border and Lake Tiberias. Out of concern that it may be a propaganda attempt by Israeli ISIS supporters, the police began an investigation. Upon closer inspection, the text in Arabic was seen to be against ISIS, and alongside Baghdadi's image was that of Abu Muhammad Al-Julani, the leader of the anti-Assad faction Jabhat Al-Nusra, who fights against the Bashar Al-Assad regime in Syria. The idea that the banknotes may have been dropped by the Syrian air force to persuade Islamist fighters in the Syrian Golan to lay down their arms and that wind may have carried them to the Galilee village.
