Old Video From Israel Shared as NY Police Using Water Cannon on Protestors

Fact-check: An old video from Israel is being falsely shared as NYPD firing water cannons at pro-Israel protestors at the JFK Airport.

(Photo: The Quint)

A video showing water cannon firing water at several people holding Israeli flags is going viral on the internet.

The claim: It states that it shows New York Police Department (NYPD) shooting water at pro-Israel protests at John F Kennedy International Airport, USA.

The background?: This comes after several pro-Palestine protestors blocked access to one of the entrances to New York’s JFK International Airport on 27 December, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.

An archive of the post can be found here.

(Source: X/Screenshot)

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

The truth: This video is from July and shows Israeli police firing water cannons at people protesting in Jerusalem against judicial reforms.

How did we find out the truth?: We performed a reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the video and this led us to a report from 25 July.

• This was shared by British news publication The Independent and it carried the longer version of the same video.

• The report stated that it showed Israeli police firing water cannons at protestors opposing the judicial reforms in Jerusalem.

• It added that after the government passed changes to the judiciary on 24 July, several demonstrations erupted outside the parliament building in Jerusalem and in central Tel Aviv.

The video is from Israel, not USA.

(Source: The Independent/Screenshot)

More about the protests: Other reports highlighted that Israeli citizens held massive protests against the approval of the judiciary bill that limited the power of Israel’s supreme court to void some government decisions.

• We also found several images on an image stock website, Alamy, which carried similar visuals from this protest.

This dates back to July 2023.

(Source: Alamy/Screenshot)

Conclusion: An old video from Israel is being falsely shared as NYPD firing water cannons at pro-Israel protestors at the JFK Airport.

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