By: Umme Kulsum
May 6 2024
No, this viral video does not depict pro-Palestinian protests in Paris
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Screenshot of posts showing pro-Palestinian protests in Paris. (Source: Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)
Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The video shows a protest by the Afghan community following the death of three Afghan migrants in a Paris fire. It is unrelated to Palestine or Gaza.
Claim ID 4a0d12f4
What’s the claim?
A video circulating widely on social media purports to show a pro-Palestinian protest in Paris. The footage captures chaotic scenes of streets and cafes with furniture scattered across the road, halted cars, panicked individuals, and overturned trash cans. A Facebook user sharing the video clip captioned it, “Pro Palestine protest in Paris.” An archived version of the post is available here.
The video clip has also been shared on X (formerly Twitter), accompanied by captions supporting pro-Palestine protests. An archived version of this post is available here.
Screenshot of the claim made online. (Source: X/ Modified by Logically Facts)
However, contrary to the claim, the video does not depict a pro-Palestinian protest in Paris, but a protest over the death of Afghan migrants.
What we found
Using keyframes from the viral video for a reverse image search, Logically Facts discovered a video on YouTube (archived here) published by Afrique Média on April 22, 2024. The French title translates to English as, “FRANCE: A RIOT OF AFGHANS IN THE MIDDLE OF PARIS.” At the timestamp of 0:12 seconds into the YouTube video, we observed the same visuals as in the viral video.
The description indicates that the clashes on Paris streets followed the discovery of three deceased Afghan migrants in mid to late April 2024, with the video recorded on April 20.
Comparison showing the viral video and the YouTube video. (Source: Facebook/YouTube/Afrique Média)
French Politician Aurélien Véron posted a similar video on his official X account (archived here) on April 21, 2024, showcasing comparable street scenes to the viral video. The translated English caption stated, "From Kabul to Paris: Protest by aggrieved Afghans, blaming the FDO for the deaths of three of them a few days ago."
This evidence suggests that the now-viral video is unrelated to the pro-Palestinian protests.
The Paris protest
According to a report from the local French news outlet Le Figaro, dated April 7, 2024, a fire broke out on the seventh floor of a building in Charonne, a neighborhood in Paris. Law enforcement confirmed that three individuals lost their lives in the blaze. Investigators found that one of the bodies recovered from the aftermath of the fire had sustained a gunshot wound to the head. Another individual died while attempting to escape the fire, as reported by another local French news network, Le Journal du Dimanche.
According to reports by Linternaute.com and Le Parisien, one of the three victims was identified as an Afghan national named Rashid.
Members of the Afghan community assembled in the Charonne district on April 20, 2025, to honor the victims of the tragedy as part of a demonstration authorized by the prefecture. However, the situation escalated into violent clashes when police intervened to disperse the demonstrators, as reported by Le Figaro.
The Paris Police Department issued a statement on X (archived here) that a demonstration was held for the victims of the fire, which later turned violent.
While a pro-Palestinian demonstration took place on the Sciences Po University campus in Paris in May 2024, the now-viral video does not depict scenes from that protest.
The verdict
A video depicting violent clashes during a demonstration by Afghan migrants in response to the deaths of three individuals in Paris is being shared with the false claim that it is footage from a pro-Palestinian protest in Paris. We have, therefore, marked this claim as false.