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| - An image is circulating on social media with claims it shows the Eiffel Tower in Paris lit up in the colours of the Israeli flag after Iran’s attack on Israel on 13 April 2024. However, the image is actually from October 2023.
The picture shows the Eiffel Tower lit up in blue with the white Star of David accompanied with captions such as “Paris’ Eiffel Tower lit up with a Stat of David in support of Israel during attack from Iran [sic]”. Several of the posts were published on 14 April, implying the Eiffel Tower was lit up on 13 April, the same day Iran launched drones and missiles at Israel. Iran described the attack as retaliation after accusing Israel of bombing its consulate in Damascus, Syria, on 1 April.
However, Google reverse image search shows the same image was posted by the Embassy of France in the US on 10 October 2023 in the wake of the 7 October Hamas attacks against Israel. Their caption said: “France stands in full solidarity with Israel, a friendly country facing a wide-scale terrorist attack. As Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna stated: ‘Nothing ever justifies terrorism.’”
Many international news outlets reported that the Eiffel Tower was lit up in the colours of the Israeli flag on 9 October 2023, two days after the Hamas attacks.
There are no recent news reports that show the Eiffel Tower has been lit up with the Israeli flag. A spokesperson for the Eiffel Tower confirmed to Full Fact that it has only been lit up once in the colours of the Israeli flag, in October 2023 just after Hamas attacked Israel.
However, the French embassy in Israel did repost the image on X (formerly known as Twitter) on 7 April 2024 to mark six months since the Hamas attacks on Israel. A Google translation of the post said: “6 months, and it feels like it was yesterday.”
One post, shared on Facebook 5,300 times, is dated from 9 April 2024 and implies the Eiffel Tower was lit up the day before in the colours of the Israeli flag to mark six months since 7 October. It is captioned: “Yesterday, the Eiffel Tower in France was lit up blue and white with the Magen David to mark the 6 months since October 7th.” The image is the same one from 9 October 2023.
We often see misleading images and videos on social media in the wake of significant global events. For tips on how to verify video content before you share it, read our guide.
Image courtesy of Pixabay
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