A video of a group of hijab wearing Muslim women walking with Indian flags as part of a religious pilgrimage in Karbala, Iraq is being shared with a false claim that it shows Palestinian women safely escaping the war-hit region by carrying the tricolour.
Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas launched one of the biggest military offensives against Israel on October 7, 2023, garnering retributive attack from Israeli forces. Israel has also announced a complete blockade of the Gaza strip stopping access to essential supplies including medicines. Millions of Palestinians are fleeing North Gaza even as Israel is carrying out air raids. According to official numbers issued by Hamas and quoted in news reports, "dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to flee..." after the Israel army ordered an evacuation in the region.
India while maintaining that it has always "advocated towards establishing... a sovereign, independent, and viable state of Palestine" has also declared that "India stands firmly with Israel". The official X (formerly Twitter) account of Israel Foreign Affairs Ministry on Saturday posted a "Thank you" to India after seeing photos of fans holding placards supporting Israel at the ongoing ICC World Cup.
The Israel-Hamas war has also seen a flurry of misinformation and disinformation online.
The video is being shared with text in Hindi that loosely translates to, "Muslim women and men in Palestine are using the Indian tricolour to escape. As the Israelis are not killing them after seeing the Indian flag"
(Original text in Hindi - फिलिस्तीन के मुसल्ले और मुसल्ली तिरंगे का उपयोग कर के फिलिस्तीन से निकल रहे हैं, क्यूंकि तिरंगा देख कर इजराइल नहीं मार रहा इन आतंकियों को)
FACT CHECK
BOOM found the video shows a group of Indian Muslims undertaking a pilgrimage in Karbala, Iraq in August-September and is in no way connected to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The claim that Palestinian women used the Indian flag to gain safe passage from the region is false.
We ran a reverse image search using specific keywords and found posts with hashtags of Arbaeen 2023. Arbaeen is the Arabic word for forty or the fortieth day after the death anniversary of Hussain Ali. It is an important day for Shia Muslims across the world who mark it with a pilgrimage to the shrine of Hussain in Karbala, Iraq.
We first found the video posted as a Facebook reel by an Iraqi video creator on September 2, 2023. This video did not have text claiming that they are Palestinian women as in the viral video and was also shared more than a month before Hamas launched a deadly offensive on Israel on October 7.
Using more keywords like Arbaeen 2023, Karbala and India we found an Instagram post by an account Falak_Haq120 from August 31 with the same video captioned "Arbaeen walk 2023"
We then contacted the account and spoke to Ali Haq, Falaq's husband who confirmed that he shot the video and his wife is present in the video.
Ali said, "This video is not from Palestine. It is from Karbala in Iraq and I shot it on August 30, 2023. My wife is in the group of women walking and we were doing the religious walk of Arbaeen from Najaf to Karbala," he said. He also added, "There are lakhs of people who do the pilgrimage walk at the same time and most tour operators require that we have identification on us and since there were several groups from India, we were carrying the Indian flag. People from other countries were carrying their own flag too. This is not connected in anyway to Palestine or Israel. My wife and I are from Bidar in Karnataka and we are back home now."
Falaq also posted another video of the group at an airport before leaving for Iraq. Ali confirmed that he was visible in the video and can be seen wearing a cap. "This was at Mumbai airport. It was part of our visit to Iraq for the religious procession. We try and go every few years."
According to a Reuters report, "Every year, millions of Shia Muslims and some people of other faiths from around the world take part in a special pilgrimage ritual, culminating in what is arguably the world’s largest public gathering." An NDTV story from September 8 reported that "more than one lakh Shia Muslims from India" travelled to Karbala for Arbaeen. The report further said, "they were also seen carrying the Indian flag at times. For their convenience arrangements were made for food and drink and special tents were set up at places, in which Indian food was provided."