2022 Karate Championship photo shared as 'Palestinian flag raised at Paris Olympics'

What's the claim?

A photo showing two male athletes standing on the first and the second podium together holding a Palestinian flag and the other athlete on the third podium holding an Israeli flag is going viral with the claim that the particular image is from the ongoing 2024 Paris Olympics.

The image was shared on X (formerly Twitter) with the caption: "Two Egyptian black belts raised the Palestinian flag after defeating an Israeli opponent at the Paris Olympics." One such post in the Spanish language has garnered around 1.2 million views. Archived versions of the viral posts can be found here and here.

In the viral image, a screen in the background displays the flags of Egypt and Israel, indicating the winners of a partially visible category that reads as "Individual Cadets Male," with Egypt and Israel listed above the respective flags. 

The 2024 Summer Olympics are being held in Paris, France, from July 24 to August 11, 2024. The term "Egyptian black belts" likely refers to martial arts practitioners from Egypt who have achieved a black belt rank.

X posts claiming that Egyptian black belts raised the Palestinian flag after defeating Israel at the Paris Olympics. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the viral image actually dates back to the 2022 World International Traditional Karate Federation (ITKF)  Championship in Slovenia and has no connection to the 2024 Paris Olympics. 

What are the facts?

A reverse image search on the viral image showed news reports by the Palestine Chronicle and Egypt Independent that featured the same image in November 2022. The reports noted that two players from the U-15 Egyptian youth team raised the Palestinian flag after securing first and second places, while an Israeli player finished in third place at the World ITKF Traditional Karate Championship held in Slovenia.

Screenshot from a report published by the Palestine Chronicle in November 2022, stating that two Egyptian karate athletes raised the Palestinian flag at the World ITKF Traditional Karate Championship. (Source: Palestine Chronicle/Modified by Logically Facts)

The ITKF, the global governing body for Traditional Karate, organized this event in Slovenia.

We also found a video titled "Part 2—World Champions 2022 ITKF—Kranjska Gora15 - 18.11.2022" uploaded by the official ITKF YouTube channel (archived here) on November 20, 2022.

The video, from the beginning to approximately the one-minute mark, shows the same three male athletes seen in the viral image standing on a podium holding the flags of Palestine and Egypt. The background screen clearly displays the category name as "001 Kata Individual Cadets Male," which was partially seen in the viral image. 

ITKF Traditional Karate World Championship in Slovenia

In an official release on November 29, 2022, the ITKF said that from November 15 to 21, 2022, over 700 karate practitioners from 30 countries across Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas participated in the 21 edition of the Traditional Karate World Championship in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.

The official results from the ITKF, dated November 15, 2022, for the 21 World ITKF Traditional Karate Championship, confirm the results for the "001 KATA INDIVIDUAL CADETS MALE" category as follows:

1. Kamel Eslam Ahmed Mohamed (Egyptian Traditional Karate Federation, Egypt)

2. Awad Omar Sherif Kamal (Egyptian Traditional Karate Federation, Egypt)

3. Oganov Idan (Traditional Karate, Israel)

Karate not included in the Paris Olympics

The Paris 2024 Olympics featured a range of sports, including Archery, Artistic Gymnastics, Breaking, Diving, Equestrian, Golf, Hockey, and martial arts such as Judo and Taekwondo, among others.

However, Karate, which was featured in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, was not included in the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.

Reuters reported that Karate was excluded from the Paris Games because organizers believed it lacked entertainment value and failed to appeal to a younger audience.

The verdict

While what has been claimed did actually happen when two Egyptian players raised the Palestinian flag after defeating Israel, the viral image is from an incident that took place at the 2022 World ITKF Championship in Slovenia. It has been misleadingly shared as being from the 2024 Paris Olympics, where karate is not included as a sports category.