Video of protester taking down Israeli flag wrongly linked to Paris Olympics

Context

Ahead of the Paris Olympics, Israel's participation was a point of controversy, and there were calls to ban the country from the competition due to the ongoing war in Gaza.

Soon after the Games commenced on July 26, a video (archived here) of a person taking down the Israeli flag from a queue of flags circulated online. These posts linked the footage to the Paris Olympics with captions like, "Man Pulled Israel Flag at Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony." (example archived here)

Other online users used hashtags such as "Welcome to #Paris2024 #OlympicGames #FreePalestine  #BanIsrael" to suggest the video was captured in Paris during the Olympics (example archived here).

However, Logically Facts found that the video was captured in October 2023 at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Italy. It is unrelated to the Paris Olympics.

In fact

A reverse image of some of the video's keyframes led us to an X (formerly Twitter) post by Al Jazeera, published on October 29, 2023 (archived here). The post's caption states, "Video footage shows a protester in support of Palestine taking down the Israeli flag from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy." 

The video in the X post matches the viral footage. Therefore, it is unrelated to the 2024 Paris Olympics. We found multiple other posts on social media from October 2023 matching the viral video (archived here and here).

With Google Maps, we located the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome to confirm the location of the viral video. Although displayed from a different angle, the building and array of flags match the viral video.

While we cannot be sure of the events leading to the removal of the Israeli flag, multiple news outlets reported about large pro-Palestinian demonstrations around the globe on October 28, 2023, including in Rome. The demonstrators called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. 

Logically Facts has covered and refuted false claims and misattributed footage shared in connection with the Paris Olympics – including a 2022 video shared with the false claim it shows Christians protesting against the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics and claims falsely linking a dance at the Olympics opening ceremony to myocarditis-related deaths.

The verdict

The video does not show the Israeli flag being taken down during the 2024 Paris Olympics. The footage was captured in October 2023 and shows a protester taking down the Israeli flag from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome, Italy. Therefore, we have marked the claim as false.