2021 video shared as Israeli forces arresting journalist for filming evidence of 'war crimes'

What is the claim?

As the war between Israel and Hamas continues into the third week, a video circulating on Facebook (archived here) showing a woman wearing a press jacket being arrested by a group of police offivers. The caption on the video claims that the journalist was arrested while filming the "war crimes" committed by Israeli forces. The text on the video reads, “ITN. News reporter and TV crew arrested for filming evidence of a War Crimes committed by Israeli soldiers. Israeli Government ordered their soldiers to hide any Evidence of War Crimes [sic].” The video has gained 47,000 views and over 2,300 likes on the platform.

The video is also being shared on TikTok with a similar claim. Archived versions of the posts can be viewed here, here, and here.

The screenshot shows posts circulating online. (Source: TikTok/Screenshots/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the video is old, captured in 2021, and is unrelated to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. 

What did we find? 

Through a reverse image search, we found that the video dates back to June 2021. This video was posted on Al Jazeera's official YouTube channel on June 6, 2021, with the title, “Israeli police arrest Al Jazeera journalist in Sheikh Jarrah.” The video's description states that Budeiri, a veteran journalist, was assaulted while being arrested by Israeli police, and “her team's equipment was destroyed.” It added, “Givara Budeiri was assaulted and detained while covering demonstrations in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood.”

(Source: Al Jazeera/YouTube)

Be comparing both videos, we identified matching visuals, people, and a blue color sign board at the corner of the road, as seen in the viral clip.

Comparison between the viral clip and the video uploaded by Al Jazeera. (Source: Facebook/YouTube/Screenshot)

Comparison between the viral clip and the video uploaded by Al Jazeera. (Source: Facebook/YouTube/Screenshot)

An Al Jazeera article dated June 5, 2021, detailing the incident reported that an Arabic journalist, Givara Budeiri, who had been working with Al Jazeera since 2000, was arrested by Israeli police while she was covering demonstrations in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. 

It stated that Givara was reporting on the 54th anniversary of Naksa Day, the annual day of commemoration for the Palestinians who were displaced in a six-day war when Israel carried out a military attack and occupied the Palestinian and Arab lands in 1967. The report also said that hours after the arrest, Givara was released from custody on the condition that she would not visit Sheikh Jarrah for 15 days. 

Reuters reported that in 2021, a series of demonstrations were held in Sheikh Jarrah in May and June that protested against Israel evicting eight Palestinian families from an east Jerusalem neighborhood.

This establishes that the video is old and predates the current Israel-Hamas war. It does not show a journalist being arrested for filming the evidence of war crimes, as claimed in the viral post.

The verdict 

The video is from 2021 and does not show Israeli forces arresting a journalist for filming war crimes against Hamas during the current war. Therefore, we have marked the claim as false.