Fabricated Photo Shared as Saudi Airplane That Landing at Ben Gurion Airport
The Claim
A photo shows a Saudi plane landing at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel.
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News websites and social media users, including Israeli journalist Eddie Cohen's account, recently circulated a photo purportedly showing a Saudi Airlines plane after landing at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar confirmed that the circulated claim is false, as the image does not depict a Saudi Airlines aircraft. It was fabricated from an old Reuters photo of an "El Al" Boeing 777 plane landing at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv on July 14, 2015.
Nir Elias took the original photograph for the Reuters news agency.
Did a Saudi Plane Land at Ben Gurion Airport?
The allegation follows claims of the arrival of a Saudi plane from Riyadh to Ben Gurion Airport in Israel (9H-AMY). Misbar searched for the flight and found it was a Mitsubishi Challenger 850 for Air X Charter. According to the "Flight Radar 24" navigation monitoring website, its headquarters are in Malta and the United Kingdom.
The plane (9H-AMY) took off from Riyadh on June 22 and flew to Amman, Jordan, before landing the next day at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel, according to FlightRadar24.
Israel-Saudi Normalization Deal
The claim sparked after an Israeli newspaper reported on June 5 on what it called the Saudi-Israeli normalization agreement, stating that Saudi Arabia intends to open its airspace to Israeli flights as part of the two countries' normalization deal.
Israeli and Saudi officials have reportedly met in recent weeks to discuss a possible deal brokered by the United States to transfer two strategically located islands in the Red Sea from Egypt to Saudi Arabia.
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