Video of Balinese Ritual Peddled as Palestinian Deaths by Israeli Airstrikes

The video is an old one and shows a religious ritual in Bali, Indonesia, where people pretend to be dead.

The video shows a religious ritual in Bali, Indonesia and does not show Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrikes.

(Source: Facebook/Altered by The Quint)

A video showing several rows of people on the ground wrapped in white cloth, with symbols on the fabric has gone viral on social media, where users are claiming that it shows Palestinians who were killed by Israeli airstrikes.

An archive of this reel can be seen here.

(Source: Facebook/Screenshot)

The Quint received a query for this claim's verification on its WhatsApp tipline.

(Archives of more posts can be seen here and here.)

Is it true?: No, the video dates back to October 2022 and shows a ritual called Calon Arang in Bali, Indonesia, where people act as dead bodies.

How did we find out?: We divided the video into multiple keyframes using InVID, a video verification tool, and ran a reverse image search.

• This led us to a video on a YouTube channel, 'Bali 77 Channel', where it was shared on 31 October 2022.

• The description of the video mentioned that it was a video from Tabanan, a region in Bali, Indonesia. It added that the 'Calonarang' had broken a record with 108 'watangan matah'.

• About 34 minutes into this video, one can see people walking onto the hall, who are then lowered and covered with the white cloth, as seen in the viral video.

• We noticed some similarities between this video and the clip in the claim.

• In both visuals, a row of men can be seen sitting in front of a red banner at the base of the stage, behind the rows of people on the ground.

A group of men can be seen sitting near the stage in both videos.

(Source: Facebook/YouTube/Altered by The Quint)

We also saw that the patterns on the white cloth matched in both videos.

In both videos, the white cloth carries a circle near the feet of the person.

(Source: Facebook/YouTube/Altered by The Quint)

What is happening in the video?: Using relevant keywords, we looked for more information regarding the ritual.

• This led us to a report by Bali Today, which mentioned that people associated with the Indonesian Youth National Committee (Komite Nasional Pemuda Indonesia) in Tabanan had collaborated with the Mandala Suci Foundation to hold a Calonarang performance.

The translated version of the report mentioned that the performance had broken a record.

(Source: Bali Today/Screenshot)

• It showed 108 'watangan matah' (which translated to corpse matah), or people acting as corpses.

• The foundation's founder, Ir Nengah Atmaja, told the organisation that 108 people were "given the gift" to participate, as 108 had religious significance.

• Additionally, the performance also aimed to break the Indonesian record for most performances offered.

• The event was widely covered, and we came across more reports and social media posts related to it.

Conclusion: An old video of a Balinese ritual is being shared to falsely claim that it shows Palestinians who were killed by Israeli airstrikes.

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