Israeli Film is Not Showcasing at a Saudi Cinema
The Claim
A video depicts hundreds of Saudis waiting outside a building to watch an Israeli film.
News posted on
Emerging story
A video post shared on Facebook showing hundreds of Saudi civilians waiting outside a building claims to be an inauguration of an Israeli film at a newly opened cinema complex.
The post above was shared on September 22, 2020, originating from a single user from Srinagar, Jammu, and Kashmir, and has since been shared over 201 times within the region, spreading to users in India and Pakistan. The caption on the video in Arabic translates to “The opening of a cinema in Saudi Arabia is a delayed world.” Other users continue to share the video.
The reaction from Facebook users who commented on the post has been one of anger towards the Saudi royal family, particularly Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and President Trump. The same video began circulating in May 2019 from an Arabic blog titled ‘Snape Plus’, claiming that the crowd was waiting for the first cinema opening in the Kingdom, without mentioning it was for an Israeli film.
The title translates as “This congestion is due to the opening of a cinema for the first time in # Saudi Arabia.”
Misbar’s Analysis
The claims being shared has been found to be false. By reverse image searching snippets of the video, Misbar has found that it instead originates here, from YouTube, in April 2019. The crowd was in fact gathering outside a discount store in the city of Hafar Al-Batin, Saudi Arabia. News report and several twitter users confirmed that shoppers were outside the store fighting over the last few remaining discounted pressure cookers from a sale at a local store.
As such, the claim that a cinema in Saudi Arabia is inaugurating an Israeli-made film is false and is instead a video from 2019 outside a local store that is hosting a sale. The trending video has been released on the backdrop of increasing normalization with Israel from Gulf Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, with the establishment of diplomatic ties through a peace agreement.
