In the fall of 2023, social networks circulated footage of police allegedly irrigating the streets of Jerusalem with sewer water. We checked whether this video description is correct.
Against the backdrop of military escalation in the Middle East, information appeared in the Russian-language media that the Israeli police were not allowing Palestinian Muslims into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Because of this, it was reported that Arabs are forced to perform Friday prayers nearby on the sidewalks. However, the security forces have found a way to deal with this too - now they allegedly fill their water cannons with wastewater from toilets and water the territory adjacent to the mosque.
You can read about this on social networks such as “VKontakte" And TikTok. The news was especially widespread on Telegram, mainly thanks to the channels “Putin on Telegram"(169,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), Voblya (153,000), "Prigozhin 2023"(130,000), "Bullet"(125,000), "Truth of Russia"(67,000), "Isn't it a Russian bear?" (56,000) and "Bullet 18+"(52,000).
October 7, 2023, the radical Hamas movement (recognized as a terrorist organization in a number of countries) caused a series of missile attacks on Israeli territory. At the same time, militants penetrated into the border settlements of this country, where killed hundreds of civilians, and more than 220 hostages taken away to the Gaza Strip. In response, Israel began bombing the area, and a few weeks later moved on to a large-scale ground operation in the Gaza Strip. The entire operation is accompanied by large casualties among civilian population region.
Mosque Al-Aqsa - a Muslim shrine located on the Temple Mount of Jerusalem, in close proximity to the Western Wall. Periodically, Israeli authorities limit access to the mosque for all Muslims or only for men under 50 - this mainly happens after incidents involving Palestinians. Another ban was announced after the Hamas attack on October 7. At the same time, the attack itself received the name “Al-Aqsa Storm” from representatives of the Palestinian group and positioned as a response to the ongoing "desecration" of the mosque by Jews.
Reports of Jerusalem police splashing water from toilets began spread on social networks at the end of October. The video illustrating these messages is somewhat different from the one that went viral in Russian Telegram channels, but was filmed in the same location.
On a car with a water cannon you can read the inscriptions “Jerusalem” and “Israel Police”. Palestinian resource Al-Quds al-Bawsala, whose logo appears on the second video, claims the video was filmed in Jerusalem's Arab Quarter Wadi Al Joz. Indeed, the Google Street View service has such location. This place is approximately 1.5 km from Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Judging by the time it appeared on the Internet, the footage was filmed on Friday, October 27, one of the days when the Israeli police limited access to weekly prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque for all Palestinians, except women and elderly men. This confirms video recording from The Guardian, published on the date indicated. The report talks about the measures taken by the Israeli police against Arabs who performed prayers outside the mosque.
In one of the frames we see the use of a water cannon in the same location and in the same direction as in the videos that interest us. Apparently, this is the same case, filmed from different angles, fortunately, there were plenty of journalists there, as can be seen in the screenshot.
The liquid that comes out of the water jet does not look like drinking water: it has a brownish tint.
In the credits of The Guardian it is said that the security forces used “skunk water”. This is not a euphemism for impurity. Skunk ("skunk") is the name of a crowd control liquid developed by the Israel Police Technological Development Department in collaboration with Odortec LTD. After being fired from the water cannon, Skunk leaves a strong odor on all surfaces, reminiscent of rot or sewage. By approval manufacturers, the liquid is produced from environmentally friendly raw materials, 100% suitable for human consumption: primarily from yeast, baking powder and water. However, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported about such body reactions to Skunk as nausea, vomiting and skin rashes, and a number of international organizations opposed the use of this weapon. Skunk was for the first time used by the Israeli military against protesters in the West Bank in 2008 and has since become common occurrence in the region, and was sometimes used against ultra-Orthodox Jewish protesters. Palestinians nicknamed this substance with a word meaning “shit”.
In all likelihood, on October 27, it was Skunk that the police in Jerusalem once again used against Palestinians. Thus, the statement about “eau de toilette” in water cannons was incorrect, although many other details of the news turned out to be true.
Cover photo: social networks
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