June 2022 video of woman protesting in front of Biden’s convoy falsely linked to Israel-Hamas war

A video is viral on social media in which a woman with a loudspeaker in her hand crosses the road and is then pushed to the ground and forcefully detained by police. Users are sharing the video claiming that she is an American woman who was trying to block the convoy of the President of the United States Joe Biden. It is also being claimed that she was protesting against the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

X (formerly Twitter) Blue page ‘هنا عدن huna aden’ (@HUNAADEN1) shared the above-mentioned video on November 19 with a caption in Arabic that can be translated as: “Watch an American woman block the convoy of US President Joe Biden and the police throw her to the ground. Greetings and appreciation to all these heroes who struggle hard for Palestine 🇵🇸 and for #غزة #IsraelIsATerrorist #FreePalestine”. The tweet has received over 1.61 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 2,600 times. (Archive)

شاهد سيدة امريكية تعترض موكب ألرئيس الاميركي جو بايدن والشرطة تطرحها ارضاً.
تحية وتقدير لكل هؤلاء الإبطال الذين يكافحون بقوة من أجل فلسطين 🇵🇸 ومن أجل #غزة #IsraelIsATerrorist #FreePalestine

pic.twitter.com/M2Ykp3IROW

— هنا عدن huna aden (@HUNAADEN1) November 19, 2023

Another X user, Abdulrahman barman عبدالرحمن برمان’ (@brman1), also shared the same video on the same day with a similar caption. (Archive)

#الشعب_الامريكي_ضد_الحرب_على_غزة
شاهد سيدة امريكية تعترض موكب ألرئيس الاميركي جو بايدن والشرطة تطرحها ارضاً.
تحية وتقدير لكل هؤلاء الإبطال الذين يكافحون بقوة من أجل فلسطين 🇵🇸 ومن أجل #غزة #بايدن_يقتل_اطفال_غزة #اسرائيل_تخسر_المعركة #اسرائيل_دولة_احتلال #جريمة_ابادة_جماعية pic.twitter.com/5EApaANob7

— Abdulrahman barman عبدالرحمن برمان (@brman1) November 19, 2023

Several other users shared the viral video with similar captions. Below are a few instances:

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Fact Check

After breaking down the video into several keyframes we ran a reverse image search on some of them. This led us to a news update by Nabd App from June 9, 2022. The report carried the now-viral video. and the title in Arabic can be translated as: “A video clip of a female demonstrator being arrested and severely beaten for approaching the motorcade of US President Joe Biden. The published clip showed the moment the female protester was arrested, dropped to the ground, and severely beaten”.

A further keyword search in Arabic and English led us to other reports about the incident. As per a report by CBS Los Angeles, US President Biden was on his way to attend Summit of the Americas which is a meeting attended by leaders from the countries of North, South, and Central America, and the Caribbean. The report mentioned that the woman was apparently demonstrating for women’s rights when she was tackled to the ground by Secret Services agents.

We also found a tweet by Fox 11 Los Angeles journalist Hailey Winslow (@HaileyBWinslow), that carried the viral video. The tweet said: “Secret Service TAKEDOWN of protestor during ⁦@POTUS⁩ motorcade ⁦@SecretService @LAPDHQ @JoeBiden”.

We found that Arab TV also had shared the same video on June 10, 2022.

طرح امرأة أرضا لاعتراضها موكب الرئيس الأميركي جو #بايدن في #الولايات_المتحدة pic.twitter.com/jOhUoJqCdY

— التلفزيون العربي (@AlarabyTV) June 10, 2022

Hence, it is clear that the viral video is from last year and has been falsely linked to the ongoing war. The clip is completely unrelated to the Israel-Palestine conflict.