Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
Claim
Massive rally in support of Palestine in Hamburg, Germany, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The archived version of the tweet can be seen here.
Fact
Newschecker ran a keyword search for “Palestine protests Hamburg”, which did not throw up any credible news reports of such a rally. We also did not notice any Palestine flags among the protesters, further raising our doubts.
Newschecker ran a reverse image search of keyframes of the video, which led us to this tweet, dated February 3, 2024, sharing the same video and stating, “About 200,000 people protest across Germany against the far-right AfD party.”
Taking a cue from this, we ran a relevant keyword search, which led us to multiple news reports over the past couple of weeks, seen here, here, here and here, stating about 200,000 people have taken to the streets of Germany in further protests against the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD). Protests on Saturday also took place in Dresden, Mainz and Hanover in a sign of growing alarm at strong public support for AfD.
“Another demonstration against right-wing extremism and the AfD in Hamburg on Sunday: Under the motto ‘For diversity and our democracy – Hamburg stands together against the AfD’, the demonstration will begin on Ludwig-Erhard-Straße this time and will offer more space than the rally last year Friday. The protest march is supposed to lead through the city. Around 30,000 people are expected. At least 50,000 people gathered at the demonstration, which was cancelled a week ago because of the crowds. The campaign caused a great stir in the media, especially due to the allegations of image forgery,” read the translated description of the Youtube video uploaded by Hamburg 1 Fernsehen, dated January 26, 2024.
“The AfD’s success has stoked concern among Germany’s mainstream parties, who fear it could sweep three state elections in eastern Germany in September, even though recent polls have shown a slight decline in AfD support,” read a Reuters report on the protests, dated February 3, 2024. Interestingly, we also came across this Al Jazeera report, dated February 2, 2024, stating that pro-Palestine supporters tried to join a recent march against the far-right, but say they were discriminated against and pushed around.
“The police in Hamburg counted 50,000 participants at the first major rally against right-wing extremism on January 19th this year. Now the interior authorities have significantly increased the number of participants. According to this, 180,000 people are said to have taken part in the demonstration,” read a report by German media outlet, NDR Fernsehen, dated February, 8, 2024. A similar report can be seen here, confirming that the viral video is not linked to the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Also Read: Video Shows Chinese Government Razing Mosque? No, Viral Video Is From Turkey
Result: Partly False
Sources
Youtube video, Hamburg 1 Fernsehen, January 26, 2024
NDR Fernsehen report, February 8, 2024
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Authors
Kushel HM is a mechanical engineer-turned-journalist, who loves all things football, tennis and films. He was with the news desk at the Hindustan Times, Mumbai, before joining Newschecker.
