Claim: Qatar’s ruling Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has threatened to cut off the world’s natural gas supply if Israel does not stop bombing Gaza.
Fact: An old clip of the Emir’s speech from the Doha Forum 2017 is being misrepresented but Thani did not issue any threats to cut off the supply of natural gas to the world. The Qatari government has also confirmed that neither the emir nor any other official has made any such remarks following the recent escalation between Palestine and Israel.
On October 7 2023 the Al Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, launched a “surprise attack” on Israel via sea, land, and air. In response, the Israeli government formally declared war on Hamas on 8 October 2023.
At least 1,400 fatalities have been reported in Israel, while health officials reported that more than 5,000 people have been killed in Gaza, Palestine, according to a report by UN News. The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the UNRWA, reported that over one million people, almost half the total population of Gaza, have been displaced.
Fact or Fiction?
On 12 October 2023, Facebook user, M.Awais claimed that Qatar’s ruling Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has threatened to cut off the world’s natural gas supply if Israel does not stop bombing Gaza.
The post is accompanied by the following caption:
“BREAKING — Emir Sheikh Tamim ibn Hamad Al Thani of Qatar threatened to stop gas supplies to the world if the bombing of Gaza did not stop.
قطر کے امیر شیخ تمیم بن حمد الثانی نے دھمکی دی ہے کہ اگر غزہ پر بمباری بند نہ ہوئی تو وہ دنیا کو گیس کی سپلائی بند کر دیں گے
The news was sourced solely from a Twitter, (now X) account, @Qattar_Affairs, which has now been suspended. According to Marc Owen Jones, a professor of Middle East studies at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Doha, the account is not a credible source of information and has previously attempted to “enflame issues pertaining to Qatar”.
Some users also shared a video, where the Emir of Qatar says, “The issue of Palestine is the issue of a people uprooted from their land and displaced from their homeland,” to support the claim that he has threatened to cut off the supply of natural gas.
However, Soch Fact Check found the claim to be false. The supporting Arabic text on the screengrab from the video translates to, “Emir of Qatar: The refugee crisis is the result of regional conflicts, civil wars, and displacement on racist backgrounds,” in English. When we conducted a Google search using this text, we came across an article by Gulf Times from 15 May 2017.
The article stated that Thani gave the aforementioned statement about Palestinian displacement during the opening session of the 17th Doha Forum, held on 14 May 2017, and not in light of the recent events in Israel and Palestine.
We found that the clip was originally uploaded to YouTube by Aljazeera Mubasher. The 7-second viral clip is a snippet from Thani’s speech in 2017 but he makes no mention of stopping Qatar’s gas supplies to the world. This is evident in the English translation of his speech, reproduced below:
“The refugee crisis is a result of regional conflicts, civil wars, and forced displacement based on racial, sectarian, or other backgrounds. Some of these crises date back to long decades, such as the displacement of Palestinian refugees in 1948 during the Palestinian Nakba, which coincides with its anniversary these days. Therefore, it is accurate to say that the issue of Palestine began as a case of a people uprooted from their land and displaced from their homeland. There are also more recent cases, such as the situation of Iraqi refugees fleeing the siege and war.”
Furthermore, according to a report by the Associated Press, a spokesperson for the government of Qatar has issued a statement denying the claim. According to the spokesperson, neither the Emir nor any other government official have issued threats to cease gas exports in reaction to the escalation between Israel and Palestine.
Virality:
The claim can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here on Facebook.
On Twitter, it was shared here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.
Conclusion: Qatar’s emir threatening to cut off the world’s gas supply due to the Gaza-Israel conflict is untrue. This assertion is based on a misrepresentation of an old video. The Qatari government has stated that neither the emir nor any other officials made such threats in response to recent events.
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com