false show

If Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had called upon Catalans to stay away from this false show of democracy while keeping the door open to a truly free vote in the foreseeable future, he may well have been able to diffuse the crisis—and to save Spain’s territorial integrity.

B’Tselem, a leftist Israeli human rights organization that generally deals with violations against Palestinians, said that the administrative detention orders were “unacceptable” and that they were “meant primarily to create a false show of firm action in order to decrease public criticism” after the Duma killings.

Simple honesty is preferable to false show in all cases; truthfulness in utterance is always to be desired.

We only care for artifice and false show.

Given to false show; assuming or pretending to posses what is not natural or real.