By: Ishita Goel J
November 16 2023
A choreographed fight video by a French stunt team is being shared with false context.
What's the claim?
A video of girls and boys fighting inside what appears to be a tunnel is viral on social media with claims that the video shows three Israeli girls fighting 10 Arab boys. An X user wrote, "In France at an underpass 3 Israeli girls showed 10 Arab men What happens when you lay your hand on Jewish girls." Another user shared the video with a similar caption. Archives to the posts are here and here.
Screenshots of the viral posts on X. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)
What are the facts?
On analysing the video, we noticed a logo on the back of the t-shirts of some of the men in the video. At the 0:07 mark, we can see "CUC" printed in white with a circle around it.
Comparison of the logo from the website and viral video. (Source: X/Website/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)
Using this detail, we found the Instagram account where the video was originally posted. The account campus.univers.cascades posted the video on November 2, 2023, with the caption "Street fight."
campus.univers.cascades posted the original video on Instagram. (Source: Instagram)
The Instagram bio states that they are a French stunt team: “Stuntmen | Fighters | Performers 🔥 Break the limits 🌍 Biggest Stunt School in the World."
The About section on their website says they are a professional training center dedicated to stunt techniques in cinema and shows: “The Campus is intended for motivated athletes, men and women, whose objective is to become a professional stuntman.” The school is located two hours from Paris, in Cateau-Cambresis.
Logically Facts contacted the school for further clarification on the viral video. They stated that the video is being shared with false context and added that it “is only a staging with stuntmen from our school: Campus Univers Cascades.” They added the video was produced as a part of a training exercise on the theme of "street fight," which involved stunt students from the school. “The goal is to bring maximum realism to this staging, but this is just a stunt and movie! Everything is prepared in advance, and everything is choreographed.”
By scrolling through the Instagram account, we saw various fight scenes similar to the viral video, including practice sessions.
The Israel-Hamas conflict
The al-Shifa hospital has become a major target point for Israeli forces, reported Reuters. Israel's military has alleged they found a command center, weapons, and combat gear belonging to Palestinian Hamas militants in the hospital. Further, on November 15, the United Nations Security Council called for a pause between Israel and Hamas militants on the grounds of humanitarian aid.
The verdict
A video produced by a professional stunt training center showing a fight scene is being shared with a false claim, alleging that it shows Israeli girls beating Arab boys who had accosted them. In reality, the video is unrelated to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Therefore, we have marked the claim as false.