Watch: Pro-Israel influencer recovers West Bank interview with Palestinian woman he was threatened to delete
Comedian and pro-Israel influencer Zach Sage Fox believes an interview he filmed in the West Bank could show Americans how Palestinian civilians truly feel about Jewish people – but it took him months to recover the footage after he was threatened to delete it.
Fox has been on a crusade to educate his followers since the terror attacks of October 7. He went viral earlier this year when his "Gaza Graduation" video featured anti-Israel protesters in New York City struggling to correctly answer basic questions about the Israel-Hamas war and decided to take his popular man-on-the-street style interviews to the West Bank, a contentious territory that Palestinians hope to establish as an independent state along with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Fox, a "loud and proud" Jewish American, told anyone who asked that he was an Italian American and was able to cross the border into the West Bank without issue, because Israelis and Jewish people are not welcomed in the region.
Fox found several people walking West Bank streets who were quick to express support for the Hamas terror group and declared Israeli hostages should not be released, but things got dicey when he tried to interview a woman whose hair was fully covered. A "very upset" Palestinian man approached him and asked him to delete the footage.
"They're not used to anybody questioning their narrative that they've been brainwashed to believe. And you can see it … I'm interviewing that girl just for several minutes and these men watching it, they can't even accept that you would be asking questions because it's not a free society," Fox told Fox News Digital.
Fox recalled the man yelling "something about modesty," and that females shouldn’t speak for all Palestinians. Fox attempted to ignore the man, but he only grew more agitated and started calling additional Palestinian men for support. He explained that he caved and deleted the footage when his Muslim cameraman said the angry group was threatening their lives.
Fox initially enlisted a team of IT specialists who were able to recover some of the footage, and every interview that was salvaged made the viral "Wild West Bank" video. But his conversation with the woman who sparked the conversation remained lost.
"Dozens of cyberhackers," additional IT specialists and even an Israel Defense Forces veteran with a passion for technology all tried unsuccessfully to restore the video. Fox was beginning to lose hope, but was eager to show the world what this woman had to say because she was "emblematic of the mindset" in the region.
She was "clearly educated" and spoke perfect English, dressed in designer clothes and said she was an engineer. Yet, she believed all Zionist should be killed.
FOX NEWS MEDIA DRAWS 10.4 MILLION FOR SIMULCAST OF THE CBS VICE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE
Another technology expert caught wind of the story and offered to help recover the video. Fox thought it was impossible and was reluctant to set himself up for further disappointment but eventually said "f—k it" and gave them a shot.
"A week later I got a call that they recovered almost all of it. It was a miracle," Fox said.
Fox then watched the footage and "couldn’t believe his eyes."
"To see that interview back after three months was insane… I didn't know when my cameraman stopped filming, so I didn't realize, one, that you could see the men starting to pull the other men in the into the thing. I didn't realize you could see that behind me," he said.
"I also didn't realize that my cameraman kept the camera going long enough so that you actually saw the people cut the camera off and stop the shoot," Fox added. "So, that was like wild to me."
Fox then published "Wild West Bank: Deleted Scenes Exploded," allowing the world to see the footage the angry Palestinian men tried to scrub.
In the shocking video, the woman told him that most Palestinians support Hamas, she proudly declared being "really satisfied" with footage Hamas terrorists took on Oct. 7. She also denied Hamas killed babies and women during the attack and said no Israelis are "innocent civilians." She suggested she is a "refugee" despite her family living in the West Bank for multiple generations and flatly dismissed a two-state solution. Along the way, Fox politely pushed back on antisemitic claims and absurd talking points.
"I am an educated person, it’s either us or us," she said when suggesting Jewish people need to leave Israel for good. When Fox told her there would "never be peace" with that mindset, she fired back, "It’s their problem."
As a man began lurking in the background, Fox asked if she believes Zionists deserve to die.
"Yes," the woman responded.
Then the man interjected.
"Cut, cut real quick," the man said. "What side are you on?"
Fox calmly responded that he was simply asking questions, but the man demanded to know where he was from.
"I’m from the states," Fox answered as the man demanded the cameraman stop recording.
The video abruptly cuts off.
Fox feels "vindicated" that he was able to share the footage.
"I just think this girl is really representative of how these people think," Fox said.
"I feel bad for her, I know that sounds crazy cause she’s literally sitting there saying everyone who I love deserves to die," he continued. "But my takeaway is that she’s the perfect example of somebody who’s not stupid. She’s an engineer, she’s a smart girl, but she’s been brainwashed by the propaganda they’re taught in Palestine."
Earlier this year, the Department of State urged Americans to avoid the West Bank because of "terrorism and civil unrest."
Fox remains one of the only Americans to enter the West Bank and try to ask tough questions, but he doesn’t believe State Department warnings are the thing keeping America journalists out of the region.
"I genuinely think that they know deep down, whether they want to admit it or not, that they would find… it totally negates their narrative, which is that, you know, ‘Hamas is bad, but the Palestinians are separate,’" Fox said.
"I wish that was the case. I truthfully didn't believe it myself until I went there that day," he added. "They love Hamas."