A video of a crowd celebrating the opening of Spain’s famous bullfighting spectacle has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times in posts falsely claiming it shows a protest in support of Palestinians in Gaza. While there have been media reports that a small number of revellers held up the Palestinian flag, the annual event in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona has nothing to do with the war between Israel and Gaza.
“Thousands of Spaniards show their solidarity with Palestine. Masya Allah, great support!”, reads the Indonesian caption of the TikTok Post published on July 30, 2024.
The 25-second video, which has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, shows a group of people jumping in the street and chanting slogans.
Around the world, large groups of people have gathered to protest Israel’s war against Hamas, which killed at least 40,173 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s Health Ministry (archived link).
The war was sparked by deadly attacks by the Palestinian militant group on October 7, which killed 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official Israeli figures.
The same video was shared elsewhere on the internet with a similar false claim. Facebook And X.
Comments on the posts showed that some users mistakenly thought it was about a pro-Palestinian protest in Spain.
“Thank you Spain…may God bless you all…”, someone wrote.
“Very kind of Spain,” said another.
However, the video has nothing to do with the war between Israel and Gaza.
Bull Festival
Reverse image searches on Google using keyframes from the video found the same clip shared on the social networking site on July 7, 2024 Wires by a user with the username “spainwayoflife”.
The caption reads: “Open ceremony San Fermín 2024”.
The San Fermín festival is an annual week-long celebration held each year in the Spanish city of Pamplona. The running of the bulls is one of the most famous traditions.
The opening ceremony of the festival is held in the Plaza Ayuntamiento. The buildings seen in the video correspond to Google Maps Street View imagery from the square (archived links) here And here).
Below is a screenshot of the images used in the fake post (left) and the image of the square on Google Maps Street View (right), with corresponding features highlighted by AFP:
Local media reports here, here And here similar crowd scenes (archived links) here, here And here).
Imagea visual content agency based in Berlin also captured a photo of the event showing the same crowd, with the caption: “July 6, 2024, Pamplona, Navarra, Spain: Revelers enjoy the atmosphere during the opening day or Chupinazo of the San Fermin Running of the Bulls festival on July 6, 2024 in Pamplona, Spain” (archived link).
The Times of Israel reported that members of celebratory groups unfurled a Palestinian flag during the bullfight in July 2024 (archived link).AFP photos also show Palestinian flags raised at the Plaza Ayuntamiento (archived links) here And here).
However, the festival has nothing to do with the war between Israel and Gaza.
AFP has debunked other false and misleading claims about the Gaza war here.
