Clip of Pro-Palestinian Protest in Qatar Passed Off as From Kerala

We found that the protest in solidarity with Palestine took place in a mosque in Qatar’s Doha, and not in Kerala.

A video from Qatar was passed off with a false claim that people gathered in Kerala’s Wayanad to show support towards Palestine.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

Video Editor: Mohd Irshad Alam

A viral video claims to show people raising slogans in Malayalam while protesting in support of Palestine, in Kerala’s Wayanad district, amid the Israel-Palestine conflict.

However, The Quint’s WebQoof team found that the claim is false and that the protest in solidarity with Palestine took place in a mosque in Qatar’s Doha on 15 May.

CLAIM

In the video, protestors can be seen raising slogans in Malayalam, which translate to: “We won’t forget nor forgive Israel for its atrocities. Israel used bombs and arms to kills Palestinians. We will make you accountable for all the bloodshed.”

The claim shared along with the video mentions that “pro-Hamas jehadis” supporting Palestine protested in Kerala’s Wayanad district, which is the constituency of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

You can view the archived version here.

(Source: Screenshot/Twitter)

The video shared by Twitter user Rakesh Thiyyan had garnered over 3,500 views at the time of writing this article.

Several users shared the video on Facebook and Twitter with the same claim. The archived posts can be found here, here, and here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We searched on YouTube with keywords in Malayalam and came across a video uploaded on 16 May on ‘GulfMalayaly’s handle and the caption along with it mentioned that people stood in solidarity with Palestine in Qatar. The viral visuals can be seen from 0:26 seconds.

VIDEO IS FROM QATAR, NOT KERALA

The Quint’s WebQoof team then reached out to a working professional in Qatar, Joju Kurien, who confirmed that the protest took place in Qatar’s Doha at the Qatar State Mosque on 15 May.

Further, media outlet ‘Qatar Living’, too, shared similar visuals on its Facebook account mentioning that several people from different nationalities had gathered in the Imam Muhammad bin Abdulwahhab Mosque or Qatar State Mosque to show support to Palestine.

A news report by the Gulf Times mentioned that Ismail Haniya, head of the political bureau of Hamas, also addressed the crowd in Doha on 15 May.

We also compared the structure of the mosque seen in the viral visuals and found that it matches with that of Imam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab mosque or Qatar State mosque as seen in an image uploaded by Getty Images.

Left: Viral video. Right: Qatar state mosque.(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

After bloodshed that lasted 11 days, a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip brokered by Egypt came into effect on 21 May. Both sides have since claimed victory, the BBC reported.

Clearly, a video from Qatar was passed off with a false claim that people gathered in Kerala’s Wayanad to show support towards Palestine.

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