After the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the war in Gaza in November, a video was shared thousands of times in social media posts falsely claiming the Israeli leader was attacked while giving a speech. The video actually shows an attack on a Bulgarian politician in January 2013.
“International Criminal Court issues arrest warrant, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu attacked,” reads the simplified Chinese text on a clip shared on X on November 23, 2024.
The clip, which has been viewed more than 52,000 times, shows a man being tackled to the ground and kicked after pointing a gun at someone speaking at a podium.
Screenshot of the fake X-post captured on December 4, 2024
It came to light after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants on November 21 against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif (archived link).
The arrest warrants – which Netanyahu described as “anti-Semitic” – were issued on suspicion of “crimes against humanity and war crimes committed” in Gaza since Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 (archived link).
Hamas’ unprecedented attack resulted in the deaths of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 44,580 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-led Health Ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.
The clip was also shared thousands of times, alongside similar claims that Netanyahu was attacked after the arrest warrant was issued on other video platforms, including Douyin and news aggregator NetEase.
Screenshot of posts from Douyin sharing the fake clip, captured on December 4, 2024
However, the video is old and actually shows a politician who was attacked in Bulgaria in 2013.
Gas gun attack
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared clip led to a similar video in a report published on the website of private Bulgarian television station bTV on August 14, 2013 (archived link).
The report concerns the delayed start of a trial against Oktay Enimekhmedov, who was accused of murdering Bulgarian politician Ahmed Dogan.
Dogan was attacked on stage during his party’s national conference in January 2013.
Subsequent reverse image searches led to similar footage on AFP’s official YouTube account, where it was published on January 20, 2013 (archived link).
“Bulgaria: attack on leader of the Turkish minority party,” was the French-language title.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the mistakenly shared clip (left) and the footage as it appears on AFP’s official YouTube account (right):
Screenshot comparison of the wrongly shared clip (left) and the footage as it appears on AFP’s official YouTube account (right)
AFP reported that Dogan was addressing delegates of his MRF party on January 19, 2013, when his young attacker, dressed in black, pulled out the non-lethal weapon and pointed it at his head (archived link).
Initially visibly stunned, Dogan threw the attacker’s arm away before a shot could be fired.
Both men fell to the ground in the ensuing scuffle, and a handful of conference delegates rushed onto the stage and kicked the attacker.
Police said the man was carrying two knives in addition to the gas gun, and experts later confirmed the weapon was not lethal.
This is evident from a report in the Bulgarian English newspaper The Sofia Sphere as of February 2014, the attacker – Oktai Enimehmedov – was sentenced to three and a half years in prison for threatening to kill Dogan, but he was acquitted of attempted murder (archived link).
The Bulgarian Supreme Court upheld that verdict in an April 2015 ruling (archived link).
