Edited photo shared to claim Israeli flag was raised alongside Nazi one at U.S. protest

What is the claim?

Amid the ongoing Israel-Gaza conflict, a photo circulating on social media platforms allegedly shows an Israeli flag displayed alongside a Nazi flag at what appears to be a protest.

The viral image features individuals brandishing various flags, including those associated with the Confederacy, Nazis, and Gadsden. Among them, one person seems to be holding an Israeli flag. Archives of these posts can be found here, here, and here.

Edited photo claiming a protestor holding Israeli flag alongside Nazi flag in a rally in the U.S. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

These posts have been shared in the context of ongoing student protests across various U.S. campuses, where students are demanding that universities dissociate themselves from companies supporting Israel's military efforts in Gaza.

What are the facts?

Upon conducting a reverse image search, we discovered that the viral image originates from a far-right protest (archive here) in Virginia, U.S., on August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville. The original photo (archived here) was captured by Anthony Crider.

Reports indicate that the rally (archive here) was organized by an ultra-nationalist group protesting against the City Council's decision to remove Confederate monuments and memorials from local public spaces in August 2017. The rally resulted in at least one death and 35 injuries due to clashes between white supremacists and counter-demonstrators.

The original photo shows flags of the Confederacy (seven white stars on a blue canton with three alternating stripes, two red and one white), the Nazi flag (red background with a black swastika on a white circle), and the Gadsden, a historical American flag (yellow with a coiled rattlesnake), being held by protestors dressed in khaki pants. 

Actual photo and the edited photo with the Israeli flag in the middle beside Nazi and other flags. (Source: Anthony Crider/X; Modified by Logically Facts)

The original photo (archived here) can also be viewed on Crider’s Flickr profile, uploaded in August 2017, with the caption: “Alt-right members preparing to enter Emancipation Park holding Nazi, Confederate Battle, Gadsden "Don't Tread on Me," League of the South, and Thor's Hammer flags.” Another photo of the same scene shows no Israeli flag. 

Actual photo of Charlottesville rally where Nazi flags appeared in 2017. (Source: Flickr/Anthony Crider/Modified by Logically Facts)

Logically Facts contacted Crider for his comments on the viral photo. Crider, a professor of astrophysics at Elon University, confirmed that the photo has been edited. He stated, “I can confirm that my original images from Charlottesville did not include any Israeli flags. It appears that a doctored version of my image with a poorly photoshopped Israeli flag added is being circulated." He further said that he included the picture's metadata on Flickr so that viewers could verify its authenticity.

The verdict

An Israeli national flag did not appear in a photo of a 2017 far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, alongside the Nazi and Confederate flags. The actual photo is from the ‘Unite the Right’ rally held in August 2017, and the viral photo has been manipulated.