A video of a staged funeral procession is being shared by social media users claiming it shows Palestinians faking deaths in Gaza.
This is false. The footage is not from the current conflict in the Middle East. It was filmed in Jordan in 2020 and is said to show a group of men attempting to avoid COVID lockdown restrictions.
The clip (archived here) features several men carrying a body in what appears to be a funeral procession.
Police sirens can be heard from about seven seconds in. The men then flee the scene, leaving the supposed deceased person on the ground.
The shrouded body then springs to life and also runs away.
The video is being linked to the current conflict, examples here, here, here and here.
In this post, the caption reads: “World wake up, fake funeral in Gaza stripe (sic), this is who we are dealing with.”
The false claim that it shows Palestinians faking a funeral was also made back in 2021, examples here, here and here.
Many of the posts use the hashtags #Pallywood (also spelled #Palywood, #Paliwood or #Palliwood), a portmanteau of the words ‘Palestine’ and ‘Hollywood‘, a slur used to cast doubt on photographic or video evidence of civilian casualties.
Not only is the video not from the current conflict, it is not from Gaza.
News reports from 2020 state the video is from Jordan.
Emirati news outlet Al Roeya reported on the video on March 24, 2020.
The report explained the video, which went viral on X (formerly known as Twitter), shows a group of Jordanians attempting to evade the COVID-19 lockdown imposed at the time.
Also on March 24, 2020, the English-language channel of Jordanian broadcaster Roya News posted the clip on its Facebook page with the caption: “Fake funeral! People still breaching the law despite the warnings.”
The video appeared amidst a number of arrests of Jordanian civilians relating to breaches of the country’s COVID restrictions.
It is not clear if the video was made as a prank or a genuine attempt to evade lockdown restrictions.
It is the latest in a number of posts featuring videos and photos to suggest crisis actors are being used to exaggerate Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza, examples here, here, here, here and here.
The Verdict
The claim that a video shows a fake funeral in Gaza is false.
The footage is from Jordan and shows residents trying to evade COVID lockdown restrictions in March 2020.
False – The claim is inaccurate.
AAP FactCheck is an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network. To keep up with our latest fact checks, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
All information, text and images included on the AAP Websites is for personal use only and may not be re-written, copied, re-sold or re-distributed, framed, linked, shared onto social media or otherwise used whether for compensation of any kind or not, unless you have the prior written permission of AAP. For more information, please refer to our standard terms and conditions.
