In early November 2023, a video circulated online showing a woman burning a French flag in the middle of a crowd. It was claimed that this was happening in France. We decided to check if this is true.
During October around the world rallies took place in support of Palestine and against the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, launched in response to an attack by Hamas militants. Against this background, a video of the burning of the French flag appeared on social networks. Most authors claimed that this was happening in France and called for the deportation of violators. Telegram channels, in particular, wrote about this “Solovyov"(239,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Israel⚡️Trash" (69,000) and "Atheist"(34,000). In addition, users posted videos social networks X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.
There is no doubt that it is the French blue-white-red tricolor that is being burned in the video, as well as that this is happening at a rally in support of Palestine - its participants are waving Palestinian flags.
In Paris and other French cities, similar actions really passed, however, there is no news about the burning of the national flag in the local media. The only report of such an incident concerns an attempt by several young people on the night of October 25 burn the flag, hanging on the Reims City Hall building, but this attempt also ended in failure.
The original video of the flag burning at the rally was found by a fact-checking project Lead Stories. This video was published on October 24, 2023 on YouTube in the account of the Moroccan TV channel TanjaNews. In the very first seconds, the emblem on the sleeve appears in the frame, on which a crown and a green five-pointed star are clearly visible. This is the emblem Moroccan police.
There are other details that help determine the place where the flag is burned. For example, at the 22nd second of the original video, protesters walk past a building with a green sign.
Letters BMCI is the name of the Commercial and Industrial Bank of Morocco, part of the French financial group BNP Paribas. Using search by Google Maps Street View Lead Stories fact checkers determined that this was the BMCI office in Tangier. And demonstrators with Palestinian flags are heading out just in time for French consulate. In October such rallies took place in all major cities of Morocco, and their participants addressed their dissatisfaction with what was happening to the diplomatic missions of Western countries.
Cover photo: social networks
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