Social media posts falsely link Malaysian funeral course with Israel-Hamas war
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on December 7, 2023 at 10:05
- 5 min read
- By Pierre MOUTOT, AFP France, AFP Thailand
- Translation and adaptation Kate TAN
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"HAMAS propaganda unit needs to edit all the living dead out of their propaganda videos prior to posting on social media," says one post from November 6 that shared the video on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The short clip shows two lines of people lying on the ground wrapped in white bags, before one man opens his eyes to the camera and appears to mouth a word.
"I don't know if there's a problem with Israeli bullets or something else, but it seems that they are coming back to life one by one," reads Persian-language text overlaid on the footage.
Israel declared war on Hamas after the militant group's October 7 attacks that killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities, and saw around 240 hostages taken.
The latest toll from the Hamas government said the war has killed more than 16,000 people in Gaza, most of them women and children.
Mass civilian casualties in the war have sparked global concern, heightened by dire shortages caused by an Israeli siege that has seen only limited supplies of food, water, fuel and medicines enter.
Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas and free hostages still held after scores were released during a short-lived truce.
The video of the man in a body bag has been shared around the world on platforms including X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. It has been circulated with captions in a number of languages including French, Spanish, Thai and English.
It appears to originally have been posted by a satirical account on X but was subsequently wrongly circulated as evidence of Hamas propaganda.
"Welcome to #Pallywood, among the thousands of deaths announced by #Hamas (which all the media, the UN, the Red Cross, and the others are picking up without any verification)," says one caption, using a derogatory label blending "Palestine" with "Hollywood."
Another reads: "The fake dead of the Palestinian Hamas propaganda."
Funeral training
AFP carried out a reverse image search for the video on Google and found an identical clip was posted to TikTok on August 19, seven weeks before the war broke out.
Below is a screenshot of the falsely shared clip (left) alongside the matching video on TikTok (right). AFP has highlighted corresponding elements in red and green.
Another TikTok video uploaded on August 20 shows various still images of the same scene. People can again be seen lying on the ground in white bags, while similar patterns are visible on the walls and windows of the room.
Below are screenshots of the two TikTok videos. AFP has marked red and green squares on features of the building seen in both pieces of footage.
A man in a pink shirt, brown trousers and a white hat appears in all the videos. He is circled in screenshots of the two TikTok videos below.
"Funeral management course at IKM Tan Sri Yahaya Ahmad, Pekan," reads a caption in Malay with the second TikTok clip.
This refers to a branch of the Mara Skills Institute located in the town of Pekan in eastern Peninsular Malaysia.
The Pekan school is located near Ikm Tan Sri Yahya Ahmad Mosque, where classes on funeral management are held. Its YouTube page contains a video showing the interior of the mosque with the same features as in the falsely shared clip (archived links here and here).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the video showing the man in a body bag (left) and the institute's YouTube footage (right) with corresponding features marked by AFP.
Officials from the institute told AFP on November 14 that the falsely shared video shows a course being taught on Islamic funeral preparation. The training session is held twice a year on the premises, they said.
Misinformation accusing ordinary Palestinians and Israelis of being "crisis actors" –- feigning injuries and deaths to garner sympathy and demonise the other side -- have spread on social media since the outbreak of the Gaza war.
Such narratives have exploded with the war, in part because of a scaling back of content moderation at platforms such as X, experts told AFP.
AFP has previously debunked other false claims of staged deaths and injuries in the war.
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