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| - Fact Check: Woman burns national flag in France? Nope, this clip is from Morocco!
The viral video shows a pro-Palestinian protest in Tangier, Morocco, from October 2023.
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India Today Fact Check
The incident occurred in Morocco in 2023, not in France. It was during a protest against France for supporting Israel.
In Short
- Viral video shows woman burning French flag, claimed to be in France
- Incident actually took place in Morocco during a pro-Palestinian protest
- Police badge and Google Maps confirm location as Tangier, Morocco
On February 23, Imam Mahjoub Mahjoubi was expelled from France’s national territory and deported to Tunisia. Mahjoubi had allegedly delivered violent and bigoted sermons that referred to the Jewish people as the enemy, called for "the destruction of Western society", and described the French flag as "satanic" and of "no value with Allah".
Now, a video of a woman burning the French tricolour during a protest is being widely shared. An X user shared the video and wrote, "Muslim woman BURNS the French flag in France. An Imam who recently called the French flag 'satanic' was deported within 12 hours of his arrest. Should this woman also be immediately deported?" The archive of this post can be seen here.
India Today found that neither did the incident occur in France nor was it recent. The viral video shows a pro-Palestinian protest in Tangier, Morocco, from October 2023.
OUR PROBE
We noticed that several people responded to the viral video and claimed that the incident occurred in Morocco, not France. Taking this lead, we conducted a keyword search in Arabic and found the extended version of the viral video in several news reports on YouTube from October 2023.
TanjaNews TV, a Morocco-based media platform, shared the viral video on October 25, 2023, stating it showed the burning of the French flag outside the French consulate in Tangier, Morocco.
We also found another video of the same woman burning the French flag, also filmed outside the French consulate in Tangier and uploaded on October 25, 2023.
Protestors had reportedly assembled outside the Consulate General of France in Tangier to condemn France's support for Israel in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
In the viral video, we observed that the police officers were wearing a badge. On close perusal, we found that it resembled the Moroccan police badge and not French.
We also geolocated the site of the protest site on Google Maps, which confirmed that the viral incident occurred outside the French consulate in Tangier, Morocco, and not in France.
Thus, it’s clear that this video doesn’t show a woman in France burning the French flag.
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