Claim
A tweet claiming bombings and disruption in Palestine currently with hashtag #PalestineWillBeFree accompanied by three images has been widely shared on Twitter recently with approximately 1K likes and 400+ retweets.
We found many other users tweeting about the same here and here.
We also found the same text as mentioned in the first tweet being shared on Facebook. Although the accompanying images here are different.
Factcheck
We fact-checked this tweet in two parts:
- We looked for the source of the images
- How & when the hashtag #PalestineWillBeFree began
A simple search took us to a 2014 BBC news report titled “Gaza conflict: Hamas vows no Israel ceasefire” which includes the first image in the tweet.
We also found the image in a 2014 news report on the Gaza war by AKIPress, a news agency in the Kyrgyz Republic.
The second image in the tweet was found in a 2018 news report from Sada News Agency, an Iraqi news agency part of the Iraqi Media Network. According to this report, the image was taken at the Al-Khan Al-Ahmar area of the Jerusalem Governorate of the West Bank to prevent the Israeli occupation forces from demolishing Bedouin homes.
The third image was found in multiple old media reports including these two.
Therefore, we know from our search that these are old images being reused by Twitter users in a different context.
The hashtag #PalestineWillBeFree as we notice has been used with the same message and related images.
We came across the following tweet posted by the Twitter handle @MahvishFatima_ which we had found to be temporarily suspended due to exceeding the tweet/retweet limit using a certain hashtag, during our research.
It claimed to either start a trend or alert users about a trend on 15 May 2020 with the hashtag #PalestineWillBeFree and an accompanying message: “The world knows that America, with the help of Israeli allies, invades Palestine and massacre people from time to time. As the voice of Palestinian laborers. Take part in the trend.”
Using the same hashtag #PalestineWillBeFree but with a different message related to the freedom of Palestinians, we came across the following tweet by the Twitter handle @DrxHamidMalik_2 which claims to be the official account of Youth Students Wing President of AIMIM .
Conclusion
We found that the images used in the tweet are old and placed here in a different context. The hashtag included was sourced from another user who aimed to start a Twitter trend related to Palestinian freedom.
Tools Used
Google reverse image search
Twitter Advanced Search
Result: Misplaced Context
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