Old video of Iraqi Yazidi parliamentarian talking about IS falsely linked to Israel-Hamas war

Published on November 2, 2023 at 11:09
Updated on November 2, 2023 at 11:11
3 min read
By Devesh MISHRA, AFP India

Thousands of civilians have been killed on both sides of the war triggered after Hamas gunmen launched an unprecedented attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, taking 240 hostages. However, a video shared in social media posts claiming it shows an Israeli woman released from Hamas captivity is in fact unrelated to the conflict. The video is from 2017 and shows Yazidi Iraqi Member of Parliament Vian Dakhil recounting atrocities by the Islamic State group in an interview.

Warning: This story contains graphic details

"The Israeli woman said that she was held captive by Hamas terrorists for three days," reads a Hindi-language post shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, on October 25.

"After three days, they brought rice and meat curry for me to eat. I was very hungry. After I had my meal, I was told 'the meat curry was made from the one-year old child we snatched from you'. They raped 10-year-old girls till they died."

The video, which has more than 31,000 views, shows a woman speaking in an interview about the rape and imprisonment of Yazidi women.

Screenshot of the false post, taken on October 30, 2023

Israel has launched relentless aerial bombardment of Gaza in retaliation for Hamas's unprecedented attack on October 7, when gunmen from the Islamist group killed more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities.

Another 240 were seized as hostages and taken into the Gaza Strip.

According to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, Israel's bombing campaign has killed more than 8,000 people, mostly civilians and many of them children.

The video was shared in similar posts falsely linking it to the Israel-Hamas conflict here and here on Facebook and here on X.

Yazidi parliamentarian

The video shared in the false posts features the logo "MEMRI TV".

A reverse image search and keyword search on Google found a longer version of the video posted by US-based MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute) on X on June 26, 2017 (archived link).

The post says: "Yazidi Iraqi MP Vian Dakhil Breaks Down in Tears Recounting Atrocities Committed by ISIS against Her People."

Vian Dakhil is a Yazidi parliamentarian from Iraq who has campaigned prominently for fellow Yazidi women enslaved by the Islamic State group (archived link).

The Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking group hailing from northern Iraq, have for years been persecuted by IS militants who have killed hundreds of men, raped women and forcibly recruited children as fighters.

The first 40 seconds of the video where Dakhil mentioned the Islamic State has been clipped and shared in social media posts with captions falsely linking it to Hamas.

A keyword search found the full interview posted on YouTube by Egyptian broadcaster eXtra News on June 3, 2017 (archived link).

The Arabic language title of the video reads: "Exclusive | An interview with Vian Dakhil, a member of the Iraqi Parliament | Full."

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video shared in false posts (left) and the original interview (right):

screenshot comparison of the video uploaded in the false posts (left) and the original interview on the YouTube channel of eXtra news (right)

In the interview, which was widely reported in the media, Dakhil speaks about alleged atrocities by IS jihadists against Yazidi women (archived link).

AFP has debunked a flurry of misinformation about the Israel-Hamas war.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail