Fact Check | Old fake funeral video from Jordan shared to discredit reports of Palestinian casualties

The recent escalation of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict began on May 6 after Israeli forces tried to evict eight Palestinian families and settle Jews in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighbourhood of East Jerusalem. The tiny neighbourhood has become an emblem of what Palestinians see as an Israeli campaign to force them out of East Jeruselum, reported Reuters. The protests led to an escalation of a decades-old conflict. The Hindu reported, “Israeli armed forces stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Haram esh-Sharif in Jerusalem [on May 10], ahead of a march by Zionist nationalists commemorating Israel’s capture of the eastern half of the city in 1967. More than 300 Palestinians were injured in the raid. In retaliation, Hamas, the Islamist militant group that runs Gaza, fired dozens of rockets. The Israelis launched an airstrike on Gaza in response, killing at least 21 Palestinians, including nine children.” The conflict has flared human rights concerns as Israel swells up violence against Palestine.

In the backdrop of this, a video has been shared on social media discrediting reports of Palestinian loss of life. The video shows a group of men carrying a dead body that turns out to be alive.

Twitter user @Morelharar1 posted the video and wrote, “Today in Gaza, the Palestinians pretended to be at a funeral and photographed it so that they would feel sorry for them. But then an alarm sounded … oops #israel #IsraelUnderFire #IsraelUnderAttack [sic].” The video has gained over 40,000 views.

The video was shared by Instagram user the.israel.files where the post read, “This is a major part of the problem. A continued Palestinian Arab propaganda effort (‘pallywood’) to elicit international sympathy knows no bounds, and far too many international media outlets and social media personalities are taking the bait.” It drew over 50,000 views.

Dan Poraz, policy advisor to Israel’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabi Ashkenazi, The Pioneer editor Pramod Kumar Singh and Columnist Abhijit Iyer-Mitra amplified the video.

Old video from Jordan

We found that Twitter user @bassmadj had uploaded this video on March 24, 2020. According to her, a group of Jordanian youths staged a mock funeral during the pandemic as a ruse to get out of the house during the lockdown. The video shows them running away upon hearing the sound of sirens.

Abu Dhabi-based news portal 24.ae and Arabic-news website Youm7.had also uploaded the video in 2020 as Jordan.

Jordan had imposed strict lockdown in March last year. A three-day curfew was imposed that directed all people to stay indoors and shops to be closed. Anyone violating the rules faced up to one year in prison, reported The Hindu.

A year-old, unrelated video from Jordan has been shared with false the claim that Palestine protestors are trying to gain sympathy in the ongoing conflict with Israel by faking casualties.