Guardian op-ed on Palestine attributed to U.K. MP Zarah Sultana is fake

What is the claim?

An image circulating on social media claims that United Kingdom Member of Parliament (MP) Zarah Sultana authored an opinion piece on Palestine and the LQBTQ+ community in The Guardian. 

The viral image shows a screenshot of a purported column titled, "A free Palestine will be a progressive and safe haven for trans and queer people.” The subheading of the article, seemingly published on April 19, 2024, reads, “All Palestinians stand in solidarity with the LGBKFCTQ+ community,” and has been attributed to Sultana. Archived versions of such posts can be found here, here, and here.

 Screenshots of the viral posts. (Source: Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, we found that the claim is false. The viral news report is fake and The Guardian didn’t publish any such column.

How did we find the truth?

We reviewed the opinion section of The Guardian’s official website and could not find the viral column. The publication published a total of 16 opinion pieces on April 19, 2024, and the viral article was not among them. Furthermore, none of the columns from this period were authored by Sultana.

Sultana has authored two opinion pieces for The Guardian, one in August 2022 and another in August 2020. The first article was titled, “MPs ‘advising' big business undermines democracy. Second jobs should be banned” and the latest was titled, “Britain isn’t just facing a cost of living crisis: it’s facing a bonanza of corporate greed.” There is no article regarding Palestine and the LGBTQ+ community attributed to her.

We also identified several discrepancies in the viral screenshot. While the image imitates The Guardian's layout and format, the visible masthead reads "The Grauniad." This is a deliberate misspelling of The Guardian, as Logically Facts has noted before, and is often used in viral posts featuring fake articles.

The image shows the discrepancies in the viral screenshot. (Source: Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

Further, the reference to the LGBTQ+ community appears to be satirical, adding extra letters. It is clear that the screenshot has been fabricated and widely circulated by some social media users as a real article. Some of the social media posts also removed the misspelled masthead from the image, possibly to make it appear like a genuine piece published in The Guardian.

Logically Facts also contacted The Guardian for comment and was told, “The screenshot shared is not and has never been an article or headline published by the Guardian.”

The verdict

The viral screenshot claiming that Zarah Sultana wrote an opinion piece on Palestine and the LGBTQ+ community for the Guardian has been fabricated. The Guardian has confirmed to Logically Facts that they have not published any such piece. Therefore, we have marked the claim as fake.