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| - Fact Check: Video of sea of Israelis protesting against Netanyahu is old
India Today's investigation found that this video stitches two separate news reports, one of which is from March and thus unrelated to the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
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India Today Fact Check
The first part of this video is from a protest against judicial reforms in Israel in March. The second part, however, is from a recent protest demanding help to find the hostages taken by Hamas.
A video supposedly sourced from an ABC News report has been circulating on social media with claims that it shows thousands of Israelis protesting against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. In the first part of the video, a massive crowd can be seen at a junction.
Subsequently, another clip shows a journalist standing on a crowded road where people could be heard shouting "Bibi (Benjamin Netanyahu) is a murderer." The journalist says that the people were protesting against Netanyahu for his involvement in the war and for not providing adequate security to the people in southern Israel.
The caption of the video shared on Facebook reads, "In Tel Aviv, Israelis are chanting: Bibi (Benjamin Netanyahu) is a murderer. They are addressing the root cause of the problem, the right-wing Israeli government. When will Trudeau, Biden, Macron, and other world leaders learn.”
India Today's investigation found that the video stitches together visuals from two different events. While the second part of the video indeed shows a recent protest in Tel Aviv, the first video is old and unrelated to the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Our Probe
We observed the logo of The Telegraph in the top right corner of the first part of the video depicting a large crowd. Using this lead, we conducted a reverse image search of the video’s frames with relevant keywords and found a longer version of the video uploaded to The Telegraph's YouTube channel on March 12, 2023.
According to this report, the video showed a March 11 demonstration in Tel Aviv against the government’s plan to overhaul the judiciary. Reportedly, half a million protesters participated in the demonstration. The report also mentioned that such protests had been a regular weekly event for more than two months in Israel.
A photo of a similar crowd in Tel Aviv was also published by the news website Iran International on March 11. As per the BBC, there have been significant protests in Israel throughout the year, with tens of thousands of people opposing the government's plans to change the way the judicial system operates.
Despite widespread opposition, the government, which has a strong parliamentary majority, passed a "reasonableness" bill in July that limits the Supreme Court's authority to cancel government decisions deemed "extremely unreasonable." Protesters have been demanding the scrapping of all planned reforms and the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They have garnered support from political rivals, former top officials in the military and security services, former chief justices, legal experts, and business leaders.
The ABC News report
The second part of the viral video with the ABC News logo, however, is recent. Through a keyword search, we located the original video uploaded to the ABC News YouTube channel on October 14. The video's description read, “ABC News' Matt Gutman is among dozens of protestors who are demanding Israel do more to find hostages.”
According to this 10-minute-long report, an anti-government protest was organised in front of the IDF headquarters in Tel Aviv, seeking help to find the hostages taken by Hamas and demanding a prisoner exchange between Israel and Hamas. The now-viral clip can be seen close to the six-minute mark in this video.
It is, hence, clear that a video showing the protest against judicial reforms in Israel was merged with a recent news report to create the impression of a massive Israeli protest against the war with Hamas.
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