Israeli singer Eden Golan is in Malmo, Sweden, for the Eurovision Song Contest, an international song competition held annually by the European Broadcasting Union.
Golan has become a focus of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who want her country kicked out of Eurovision over its war with Hamas, which has killed more than 34,000 people in Gaza, according to estimates from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Posts shared multiple times across social media claim to show Muslim or “pro-Gaza” protesters clashing with police. This post with more than 350,000 views claims the video shows “pro-Gazan Muslim migrants” protesting against the singer.
THE QUESTION
Does this video show violent protests because an Israeli singer is performing at Eurovision?
THE SOURCES
- Original video posted in May 2009 by Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan
- Various news reports from May 2009 about the Davis Cup
- InVid and RevEye, video and photo forensics tools
THE ANSWER
No, this video doesn’t show violent protests because an Israeli singer is performing at Eurovision. The video is from a 2009 tennis match.
WHAT WE FOUND
While there have been protests in Sweden against the Israeli government while the Eurovision Song Contest is being held, this video is not from this year’s contest. It’s actually from a 2009 tennis match.
Using InVid, a video forensics tool, VERIFY analyzed the keyframes of the viral video and conducted a reverse image search of the frames. That led us to this video posted on YouTube on May 15, 2009, by Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan.
The video shows protesters clashing with police outside a closed arena in Sweden where the country was playing against Israel in the Davis Cup, an annual tennis competition.
We confirmed the video is the same by comparing the viral video clip being shared in 2024 to the YouTube video posted in 2009. The first minute and 55 seconds of the original video posted in 2009 is the same as the viral video being shared now.
According to various news reports from May 2009 about the Davis Cup, the protesters threw rocks and firecrackers at police vans. The protesters were there to condemn Israel’s offensive in Gaza at the time and urge support for Palestinians.
In December 2008, Israel launched a three-week offensive that started with a “pre-emptive strike” in the Gaza Strip. The battle between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza lasted for three weeks and ended with a ceasefire. An estimated 1,300 Palestinians and 14 Israelis were killed, the reports said.
There have been protests at the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest; a crowd estimated by police at more than 10,000 marched to chants of “Free Palestine” and “Israel is a terror state.” At the time of this publication, no violence has been reported.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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