By: Rajini KG
November 15 2023
2022 video of anti-hijab protests in London shared as recent pro-Palestine march
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Screenshot of the viral video circulating online. (Source: Facebook/YouTube/X/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)
Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The video shows a protest in support of Mahsa Amini, whose death in police custody had triggered massive protests against the Iranian government.
Claim ID de1bab7c
Context
On November 11, 2023, a protest march supporting Palestine amid the Israel-Hamas conflict was held in London on Armistice Day, a day commemorating the end of World War I and honoring fallen soldiers. According to a report by the Associated Press, alleged right-wing members staged counter-protests in London, leading to skirmishes with the police.
Against this backdrop, a video surfaced online claiming to depict pro-Palestine protestors attacking a man being escorted by the London police. A Facebook user shared the video with the caption, "LONDON'S. IMPORTED SUPPORTERS OF HAMAS AND PALESTINE." The video shows a crowd shouting and throwing items at a man being led by two police officers to a police van. The same video also circulated on X and YouTube. Archived versions of such posts can be accessed here and here.
Screenshot of the viral video circulating online. (Source: Facebook/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)
Here are the facts
Through a reverse image search, we found videos from this incident, albeit from a different angle, published on the Daily Mail’s YouTube channel on September 26, 2022. At 2:58 minutes, a man wearing a mask and the Iranian flag is seen attacking the man in a beige shirt who is being escorted by the police. The same man appears in the viral video at 0:13 seconds.
Screenshot of the YouTube video (Source: YouTube/Screenshot)
Another video, published on September 30, 2022, by 'Bestius Vlogs,' a U.K.-based vlogging channel, captured a close-up view of the incident from a different angle. At 1:48 minutes, the masked man is seen kicking the man held by two police officers.
Both videos stated that these visuals were captured during a protest after the death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody. Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman, was detained by Iranian authorities for violating the country's stringent hijab laws, leading to widespread protests in Iran and globally.
The Australian news website News.co.au published screenshots from this video in a report dated September 28, 2022, stating violence occurred at a protest in Kilburn, London, with objects thrown at the man in the beige-grey t-shirt. The man and other police officers were reportedly attacked during the rally. Similar protests occurred in front of the Iranian Embassy in London in September 2022, and violence was reported during other protests as well, according to a BBC report from September 26, 2022.
This video had also gone viral earlier in the year with the false claim that the riots in July 2023 over police reforms in Paris had spread to London. Logically Facts had debunked this claim. Read our fact-check here.
The verdict
The video depicting violence at an anti-hijab protest in London in 2022 has been shared misleadingly as a pro-Palestine protest in London related to the Israel-Hamas conflict. The events are unrelated, and we have marked this claim as false.