A 15-second video, in which two smaller clips are added one after the other, has gone viral on social media. It shows a police van being attacked. In the first segment, we can see a man jumping on top of the vehicle while several men are pelting stones. In the second part, we can see the vehicle being driven at a high speed towards a building. It is being claimed that Hamas supporters in Sweden were rioting and attacking police personnel.
Organiser Weekly, the official X handle of Organiser, the mouthpiece of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has posted the video on X (previously Twitter) claiming “Hamas supporters in Sweden attacked police officers and stole their van while protesting against Israel” (Archive)
Hamas supporters in Sweden attacked police officers and stole their van while protesting against Israel#IsraelPalestineConflict #IsraelFightsHamas pic.twitter.com/ccX667rt83
— Organiser Weekly (@eOrganiser) October 13, 2023
The video has been shared with a similar claim by X Blue user @cutepreetiji. (Archive)
This scene is Sweden.
Where hardcorer is rioting on the streets in support of Hamas’ terrorists.
These jihadists attacked the police together and are also running away with the police van.
Their entire world has only one motive to fight and kill non-Muslims.#Isarael… pic.twitter.com/XVTOVbbTfO
— preeti Yadav (@cutepreetiji) October 13, 2023
@WallStreetSilv (who has 1M followers on X) shared it stating “…Sweden… police basically have given up and allow what they call “parallel societies”. (Archive).
Sweden now has 61 “no-go zones” where the police basically have given up and allow what they call “parallel societies”.
Sweden has recently elected a new government that is promising to deport more and cutoff the fake refugee issue. We will see if they can turn it around. It… https://t.co/o3aiPq6yo8
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) October 13, 2023
The video has also been shared by X Blue User @RadioGenoa. (Archive)
Fact Check
We broke the video into multiple key frames using video verification tool InVid and ran a reverse image search. This led us to a video that was posted by X Blue user @Henrik_Palmgren on April 16, 2022. This proves that the video is at least one-and-a-half-year old. (Archive)
— Henrik Palmgren 🇸🇪 ᛟ (@Henrik_Palmgren) April 16, 2022
To verify the location of the video we took a closer look at the building that can be seen in the clip. It has the word ‘IDROTTSHUSET’ written on it.
We searched ‘IDROTTSHUSET’ on Google and found out that the building is located in Orebro, Sweden. The building can be seen here on Google Street View. Screenshot below:
To get further information about the incident, we did a keyword search and found out several news reports from April 2022. News agency BBC, on April 18, 2022, reported on violent clashes that had taken place in Sweden after copies of the Quran were burnt. According to a news report by Aljazeera, on April 19, 2022, it was led by Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan, who is the leader of anti-immigration and anti-Islam group Hard Line. The report also says: “Aiming to drum up support ahead of Danish legislative elections in September, Paludan declared a “tour” of Sweden, planning to visit cities and towns with large Muslim populations with the intent of burning copies of the Quran during the holy month of Ramadan. Violent riots erupted in the central Swedish city of Orebro on Friday as counter-protesters attacked police before a planned far-right demonstration.”
A video report by Quint posted on YouTube on April 20, 2022 with the title “Sweden Clashes | Dozens Arrested Over Violence After Far-Right Group Plans To Burn Quran” shows the viral clip at 0:18 seconds. This proves that the video is indeed from the Sweden clash of April 2022.
To conclude, an old video from April 2022 is being shared with the false claim that Hamas supporters are attacking police officers in Sweden. The video shows an unrest in over burning of copies of the Quran led by political leader Rasmus Paludan. The clip has no connection with the ongoing war.
Shreyatama Datta is an intern at Alt News.
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