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| - Fact Check: Bonhomie between Jews and Arabs in viral video is misleading
A video has gone viral on Facebook with the claim that Arabs and Jews were dancing together to celebrate the opening of Israeli and Saudi Arabian embassies in each other's countries. India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found this to be a misleading claim.
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India Today Fact Check
The viral video is from Bahrain. Every year, local Bahrainis and Jews celebrate the Jewish festival Hanukkah together.
A video has gone viral on Facebook with the claim that Arabs and Jews were dancing together to celebrate the opening of Israeli and Saudi Arabian embassies in each other’s countries.
The video shows men in orthodox Jewish dress with black coats and skull caps and some in typical Arabian flowing robes and checkered keffiyeh dancing together.
Facebook user "Joys Samuel Kollethu" wrote on his Facebook page, Israel Embassy Opens in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia Embassy opens in Israel. What A Lovely Sight. Arabs N Jews Dancing Together.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found this to be a misleading claim. The viral video is from Bahrain, where each year, local Bahrainis and Jews celebrate the Jewish festival Hanukkah together.
The video, posted on July 18, has been shared more than 2,900 times till the filing of this story. The archived version of the post can be seen here.
Several other Facebook users such as "TEMAN AHOK se INDONESIA (Group relawan)" and "Gaza Hummingbird Project" have also shared the same post.
Under Joys Samuel Kollethu’s post, one Facebook user by the name Billy Sam Varghese said in the comment that the video was not from Saudi Arabia but Bahrain. He also gave the link to an article published in a website called Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
The article, titled "Hanukkah candle lighting in Bahrain features Arabs and Orthodox Jews dancing together," and published on December 26, 2016, reported about this particular video.
The kingdom of Bahrain hosted a candle-lighting ceremony on the first night of Hanukkah that featured local men wearing kaffiyehs and Orthodox Jews dancing together, the article read.
Website "Jewish Telegraphic Agency" publishes stories on issues of Jewish interest and concern.
On December 27, 2016, "The New York Times" published an article on the same event. The NYT article also referred to the information given by Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
According to the NYT report, In 2015, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa of Bahrain invited European Jewish leaders to conduct a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony in the capital, Manama.
In this video, local Jews and Arabs are seen together dancing and celebrating the Jewish festival.
Incidentally, Israel and Saudi Arabia do not share official diplomatic relations. Though there have been a couple of recent international media reports which suggest a change in the postures of both leaderships, but there is no news about opening of any diplomatic mission or embassy immediately.
Hence, the viral post about Jews and Arabs celebrating the opening of Israeli and Saudi Arabian embassies in each other’s countries is misleading.
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