Claim: Thousands of Jews gathered in New York City to protest IDF’s ongoing operations in Gaza in March 2024.
Fact: The post is misleading. The video is 10 years old and shows a protest in New York City, in June 2013, against a draft bill proposed at the time that would require the conscription of Orthodox Jews in the Israeli military.
On 10 March 2024, X user @VudiXhymshiti posted a video of a protest with the caption, “Thousands of American Jews, particularly those deeply committed to Torah teachings, are gathering in New York to express a profound disconnection from Israel and its military, the IDF,” suggesting that the protest took place recently, in light of the war in Gaza.
“This large assembly highlights their stance of non-affiliation with the Israeli state and emphasises their critique of its actions as inconsistent with their understanding of Judaism and the Torah. They assert that Israel’s conduct, including military operations, stands in opposition to the Jewish values they uphold.” the caption adds, possibly hinting at the ongoing “military operations” in Gaza.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a Google Reverse Image Search of keyframes from the video and found that the viral clip on X, shared with the false claim, is from the first 27 seconds of a longer 15-minute YouTube video posted in 2013 with the title, “Thousands of Orthodox Jews in NYC Foley Square protest Israeli draft”. This YouTube post renders the viral claim false as it confirms that neither is the video of a recent protest, nor does it show protests against Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
Furthermore, Soch Fact Check found another 56-minute-long video of the same protest on YouTube, also posted in 2013, titled, “One Hundred Thousand Jews in NYC Gather to Protest New Israeli Draft Law – June 9 2013”. Besides the self-explanatory title and the year it was posted, a few elements in the background of both videos are identical, such as the banner hanging behind the speaker and the buildings around the area of protest, further confirming that they document the same protest.
As per the title of both videos, they show a protest against a new “Israeli draft law” proposed at the time that would enlist members of the Orthodox Jewish community for military service in Israel.
Another Facebook post, which carries a picture matching the keyframes of the video, shared on June 10 2013, confirms that the protest did not take place recently.
Soch Fact Check also found extensive coverage of the 2013 protest by reputable news media outlets. A Haaretz report shows protestors from the rally holding signs which say, “The Israeli draft law: An Attack on our religion,” while another sign can be read as saying, “Orthodox Jews will proudly go to jail, rather than join the Zionist Army.”
Picture from East News
Picture from HuffPost
A HuffPost article carries an image with a front shot of the same protest banners. Another image, published by East News, confirms the protest.
Therefore, Soch Fact Check concludes that a 2013 video of a protest in New York City has been shared on X with a misleading claim.
Virality
The misleading claim was shared on X here, here and here.
In addition to this, Soch Fact Check found that screen grabs from the video of the protest have been shared recently, on LinkedIn and Reddit. In particular, the post on LinkedIn misleadingly connects the protest to the ongoing war in Gaza, sharing it with hashtags such as, “#ceasefireNowPermanently”, “#StopGazaGenocide” and “#GazaHolocaust” among many others.
The video of the protest was also shared recently on YouTube with a misleading title.
Conclusion: A video clip on X does not show any recent protest against the IDF or Israel’s war on Gaza. The video is old and shows a protest which took place in New York City in 2013 against a draft bill that would require conscription from Orthodox Jews in the Israeli military.
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Background image in cover photo: Columbia News
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