Fake New York billboard saying 'ceasefires are anti-Semitic' spreads online

"Wanting to stop the slaughter of innocent civilians is anti-semitic," says a December 31, 2023 post on X, formerly Twitter.

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Screenshot from X taken January 3, 2024

Similar posts spread across X and other platforms, such as Facebook and Instagram, as Israel's war with Hamas carried into the new year with tensions rising in the Middle East.

The same image has circulated online since the early weeks of the conflict, which was triggered by an October 7, 2023 attack on Israel in which Hamas militants took some 240 hostages and killed about 1,140 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel's relentless bombardment and ground invasion in response has reduced swathes of the Gaza Strip to rubble and killed more than 22,400 people, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

But the supposed billboard ceasefire message shared online is fake -- the photo has been altered.

A reverse image search revealed the Consulate General of Israel in New York posted the original October 19, 2023 (archived here and here). The message on the sign said: "Be human. Stand for Israel."

The picture was taken as thousands gathered in the US financial capital to express solidarity with Israel and the hostages kidnapped by Palestinian militants. US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was among the speakers at the October 19 event, which was organized by the Israeli American Council (IAC) and billed as the Bring Them Home Now rally (archived here).

Joe Berkofsky, a spokesperson for the IAC, told AFP in a January 4, 2024 email that the image shared online is "fake." He pointed to the group's live footage of the rally, which shows the true billboard messages (archived here).

Photos from the IAC and others also show the display (archived here and here), as do videos from outlets including the New York Post and CBS News New York (archived here, here and here).

Israeli singer Shiri Maimon, seen on a stage in the Consulate General of Israel in New York's original photo, also posted a video on Instagram that shows the signs (archived here).

AFP geolocated the display to Father Duffy Square, near a famous booth on the north end of the Times Square district where people can purchase Broadway theater tickets (archived here).

Advertising agency Silvercast Media owns the billboards at that location (archived here). Gary Grossman, the company's co-founder, told AFP in a January 4 email the alleged ceasefire billboard is "fake."

AFP has previously debunked other fabricated Times Square billboards about the Israel-Hamas war and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.