Old Video of Irish Politician Speaking Against Israel Passed Off as Recent

The video dates back to July of this year, which predates the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

Fact-Check | This video dates back to July of this year and is being shared with a misleading context.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A video of a person speaking about introducing a bill to prevent Irish taxpayers' money from being invested in companies "that profit from Israel's illegal occupation and settlement expansion."

• The person further criticises Israel for not complying with international laws and for brutal apartheid of Palestinian people, among other things.

What are users claiming?: While several users have shared the video with a caption saying "Minister from Ireland explains Israel violates international law on a daily basis," other have shared it with hashtags such as #IsraelPalestinewar insinuating that the video is recent.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X (formerly Twitter/Screenshot)

The video had garnered more than 3,80,000 views on the platform at the time of writing this report. Archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.

What is the truth?: The video dates back to July of this year, and shows an Irish politician, Matt Carthy, speaking about a bill called 'Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill 2023' in the country's Parliament.

• Carthy's speech predates the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

How did we find out?: A Google Lens search on the keyframes of the video directed us to a similar video uploaded on the official X account of Sinn Féin — an Irish political party.

• It was uploaded on 14 July and showed a person named Matt Carthy speaking how they should lead the way to show the world that they don't want to be a part in the systematic destruction of Palestine people.

• Carthy said that the government should immediately progress the 'Illegal Israeli Settlements Divestment Bill 2023'.

• He further explained that the bill would simply prevent Irish taxpayers' money from being invested in companies that profit from Israel's illegal occupation and settlement expansion.

• Carthy proceeded to remark against the government's decision to delay the bill for nine months.

• We found the full version of the Carthy's speech uploaded on the official YouTube channel of Sinn Féin. It was uploaded on 13 July.

• Its description mentioned, "Matt Carthy TD calls for Ireland to take immediate action in support of Palestine and also economic measures against Israel over its brutal apartheid regime and human rights abuses."

• At around the 7:16 timestamp, one can see the part of the speech seen in the viral video.

• According to official website of the Irish Parliament, the bill was introduced on 28 March of this year by another politician named John Brady.

• The website also mentioned that the bill is in the second stage, where its general principles are being debated.

The link to the bill can be found here.

(Source: Oireachtas/Screenshot)

Conclusion: It is clear that an old video is being shared with a false claim that it shows a recent instance of an Irish minister talking about different international law violations committed by Israel.

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