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!” read 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.
Crowds have gathered around the world to protest Israel’s war on Hamas, killing at least 40,173 people, 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 also shared elsewhere on Facebook and X, making a similar false claim.
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
A reverse search on Google using keyframes from the video found the same clip shared on social networking site Threads on July 7, 2024 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 festival’s opening ceremony will take place at the Plaza Ayuntamiento. The buildings seen in the video correspond to Google Maps Street View images of the plaza (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 reported similar crowd footage here, here and here (archived links here, here and here).
Imago, a Berlin-based visual content agency, also captured a photo of the event showing the same crowd, with the caption: “July 6, 2024, Pamplona, Navarra, Spain: Revellers 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 being raised in 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 war in Gaza here.
