In early November 2023, a video circulated on social media purporting to show pro-Palestinian protesters setting a police officer on fire in London. We decided to check if this is true.
Throughout October, rallies took place around the world in support of Palestine and against the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, launched in response to an attack by Hamas militants. On November 5, a 14-second video appeared on Telegram channels depicting clashes between protesters and police, allegedly in London. One of the demonstrators douses a police officer with flammable liquid and then sets him on fire. This video, in particular, was published by such Telegram channels as “Solovyov"(276,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Uncle Slava» (201,000) and Voblya (152,000).
In the first second, a policeman enters the frame and is later set on fire by protesters. On his right sleeve, despite the low quality of the video, a patch in the form of the Mexican flag is clearly visible.
Using a Google reverse image search, you can find the same video on YouTube, which was posted on June 10, 2020 in the account of the British publication The Telegraph.
In this video, other details are clearly visible - for example, police shields with the inscription “Guadalajara Police”.
The name of the same Mexican city is also included in the caption for the earliest version of this video uploaded to Twitter June 5, 2020.
On June 4, 2020, events occurred in Guadalajara serious collisions between protesters and police. The reason for this was the death of a young man named Giovanni Lopez, who was detained for not wearing a mask during the period of coronavirus restrictions. Witnesses said that the police behaved harshly during the arrest, and Lopez eventually died. The tragedy led to large-scale protests and police injuries were reported.
The fact-checking department of Reuters also established the exact location where the attack on the policeman took place - 354 Juarez Avenue, not far from one of the McDonald's, the sign of which appears in the frame.
Thus, the episode with the arson of a policeman has nothing to do with either the pro-Palestinian protests or London. This happened in Mexico three years before Israel's new war with Hamas.
Cover photo: social networks
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