About

Bibi Bombing is an exploitable photoshop meme that involves placing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin (nickname: Bibi) Netanyahu in various pictures that are symbolic of celebrations or monumental historic events.

Origin

The photograph of Netanyahu originates from a news photograph taken during the historic return of Israeli soldier and war prisoner Gilad Shalit^[1] on October 18th, 2011. Shalit was abducted by Hamas fighters near the border in 2006 and had remained in captivity for over five years until the government reached a prisoner exchange deal with the Hamas organization on October 11th, 2011.

As the nation rejoiced and celebrated the soldier's homecoming on a long religious holiday weekend, a picture of Netanyahu smiling at the ceremony began to circulate on the Israeli web. Taken by the military personnel, Shalitz can be seen embracing his father while the prime minister smiles in the background.

Spread

Many Israeli netizens on Facebook^[2] saw the presence of Netanyahu in the photograph as rather misplaced, even spoiling the highly emotional moment of Shalits' family reunion with his unflattering grin. Soon, people began exploiting Netanyahu's smile by placing his photograph into historically significant moments à la 1994 American comedy film Forest Gump. The phenomenon has been reported by numerous Israeli news sites and blogs like Globes^[4] and HolesInTheNet^[5] as well as some English-language publications.^[6][8] The single topic Tumblr Fuck Yeah Bibi Bombing^[7] was launched on the same day. In October 26th, Netanyahu's oficial Facebook page uploaded a photo homaging the meme with the text line: "Bottom line, you made me laugh".^[9]

Notable Examples

External References