Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, a video of a huge crowd gathered on the streets followed by a person who can be heard saying that citizens are criticising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is going viral.
What have users said?: Social media users shared the video with a caption saying, "Live from Israel now. 5,00,000 Israelis are protesting against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israelis in Tel Aviv are now screaming "Benjamin is a murderer" (sic)."
An archive of the post can be found here.
(Source: X (formerly Twitter)/Screenshot)
At the time of writing this report, the video had garnered more than 60,000 views on the platform. Archives of similar claims can be found here, here, and here.
What is the truth?: The video has been edited to stitch two unrelated videos together.
The first video dates back to March of this year and shows protests against PM Netanyahu's legal reforms.
The second one shows a reporter talking about how people are blaming the prime minister and asking the government to do more for hostages.
The first video: We noticed the logo of The Telegraph on the top-right corner in the beginning of the video.
The video carried a logo of The Telegraph.
(Source: Viral video/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
Taking this as a hint, we performed a keyword search on YouTube and
came across the same video uploaded on the official channel of The Telegraph which was uploaded on 12 March.
The video was titled, "Israel's 'biggest ever' protests as Netanyahu govt persists with reforms."
What were the protests about?: According to a The Telegraph report, thousands of Israelis demonstrated across the country against their government's controversial legal reforms.
The visuals were recorded in the 10th consecutive week of protests.
The report mentioned that the reforms aim to give more weightage to the government and would deny the judiciary to strike down any amendments to so-called Basic Laws.
The report was published on 12 March of this year.
(Source: The Telegraph/Screenshot)
The second video: As the video progressed, we noticed the logo of ABC News present at the bottom-right which indicated that there were two different videos.
The logo of ABC News can be seen on the bottom-right.
(Source: Viral video/Screenshot/Altered by The Quint)
Team WebQoof went through the official YouTube channel of ABC News and found the second part of the video which showed a reporter speaking to the camera.
The video was uploaded on 14 October and its description said, "ABC News' Matt Gutman is amongst dozens of protestors who are demanding Israel do more to find hostages."
At around the 4:38 timestamp, the reporter could be heard making similar statements as seen in the viral video.
The report also mentioned complaints raised by the citizens of the country amidst the ongoing war.
Recent updates on the war: A recent report in USA Today said that more than 4,000 people have died due to the war. It mentioned that according to Israeli officials, at least 199 people are being held hostage in Gaza.
Conclusion: Two unrelated videos have been stitched together and is being shared on the internet to falsely claim that thousands of Israelis have come out on the streets to protest against PM Netanyahu.
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