Claim: King Charles unveiled a poster of Benjamin Netanyahu, designating him as a “terrorist” and calling for his immediate arrest, according to a video.
Fact: The video is doctored. It is actually from May 2024 and shows King Charles unveiling a portrait of himself, painted by Jonathan Yeo.
On 4 November 2024, X (formerly Twitter) user @ShahzadGill202 posted (archive) a video showing Charles III, the king of the UK, unveiling a poster with a picture of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the following text:
“TERRORIST
NAME: BENJAMIN NETANYAHU
THIS TERRORIST IS A DANGER FOR HUMANITY
ARREST HIM IMMEDIATELY”
The post is captioned as follows:
“یورپ نے اسرائیلی وزیراعظم بنجمن نیتن یاہو کو بین الاقوامی دہشت گرد قرار دے دیا۔ اس کے ایک بڑے پوسٹر کی گزشتہ روز نقاب کشائی کی گئی۔ اسے سوشل میڈیا کے ہر پلیٹ فارم پر پوسٹ کرو۔۔۔۔ ریٹویٹ پلیز 🙏🙏
[Europe has declared Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu an international terrorist. A large poster of him was unveiled yesterday. Post it on every social media platform…. Retweet please 🙏🙏]”
The post comes in the context of Israel’s war in Gaza that started in October 2023.
Gaza War
On 7 October 2023, Hamas launched (archive) a “surprise attack” on Israel, which formally declared (archive) war on the Palestinian militant group a day later.
According to a 12 November 2024 update by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 43,600 Palestinians have been killed and over 103,000 injured since the 7 October attack. Similarly, at least 1,400 Israelis have been killed and upwards of 5,400 injured.
In a six-month update report released on 8 November 2024 by the United Nations’ (UN) Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for the period between 1 November 2023 and 30 April 2024, the verified number of casualties included 8,119 Palestinians killed in Gaza, as of 2 September 2024.
The report also quoted the statistics by Palestine’s Health Ministry, which said over 34,500 Palestinians were killed and more than 77,700 injured in the period from 7 October 2023 to 30 April 2024.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check first observed certain clear signs of doctoring. The poster in question is unnaturally clear, as compared to the video’s overall quality, and moves slightly at around the 0:06 mark, when the camera pans rightwards.
The borders of the visual do not align with the frame around it. Moreover, a thin disconnected white strip appears on the top-right portion.
Lastly, at the 0:04 mark and afterwards, Charles’ figure — especially his hand — and the cloth covering the poster before its unveiling appear to have an extremely precise outline, indicating that the manipulation was likely carried out using rotoscoping.
We then used reverse image search tools using keyframes from the video. This led us to a YouTube video by The Associated Press, titled “King Charles III unveils his first official portrait since his coronation”. Its caption includes a link to the full story by the publication.
According to the article, published 15 May 2024, the “larger-than-life painting” is “the first portrait of the monarch completed since he assumed the throne” on 10 September 2022 after the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. It is described as a “vivid image that depicts him [Charles] in the bright red uniform of the Welsh Guards against a background of similar hues”.
CNN reported the same day that British artist Jonathan Yeo painted the portrait. The BBC, Al Jazeera, and CBC News’ flagship nightly programme “The National” also published text and video reports.
Lastly, we found the same on the royal family’s YouTube channel and official website here and here, respectively.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the viral video showing Charles unveiling a poster of Netanyahu labelled as a “terrorist” is doctored.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the video published on Facebook here, here, here, here and here. It was also posted here, here, here, here, and here on Instagram.
The video went significantly viral on X; for example, posts by @ShahzadGill202, @Saba5670, @atras10, and @United_World__ garnered more than 75,300, 42,200, 39,100, and 19,500 views, respectively.
Conclusion: The video actually shows King Charles unveiling a portrait of himself in May 2024. The viral clip is doctored.
Background image in cover photo: Netanyahu
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