Egyptian athletes pictured holding Palestinian flag in 2022, not at Paris Olympics
- Published on August 15, 2024 at 04:35
- 2 min read
- By Agustin BAGNASCO, AFP Argentina, AFP Indonesia
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"Two Egyptian black belt athletes holding the flag of Palestine after defeating their Israeli opponent in the Paris Olympics," says Indonesian-language text overlaid on the photo uploaded on TikTok on July 30 2024.
The photo shows two Egyptian athletes holding the Palestinian flag in the first and second place positions on a podium, while an Israeli athlete in the third place position holds up their own flag.
The post -- viewed more than 448,000 times -- included "#Free Palestine" in the caption, referring to the ongoing Israel-Gaza war.
There has been widespread support for the plight of Palestinians in the Arab world.
The role of Egypt -- which borders Gaza and Israel -- has been vital to securing past truce deals and Cairo remains a key mediator in the current negotiations.
The photo and claim circulated at the end of July, as athletes competed at the Olympic Games in Paris.
Similar false posts were also shared in Malaysia.
AFP debunked a similar claim after it circulated in Spanish-language posts in Argentina.
The photo, however, was not taken during the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Slovenia competition
A reverse image search on Google found the photo was published in a report by Egypt's Al-Shorouk newspaper on November 20, 2022 (archived link).
According to the report, members of Egypt's under-15 traditional karate team won gold and silver at a world championship in Slovenia.
A further search found an article published by the International Traditional Karate Federation (ITKF) about the 21st Traditional Karate World Championship that it held from November 15 to 21, 2022 in the alpine resort of Kranjska Gora in northwestern Slovenia. (archived link).
The falsely shared photo corresponds to footage of the championship's medal ceremony posted on the ITKF's official YouTube channel on November 20, 2022 (archived link).
Below is a screenshot comparison between the image used in the false posts (left) and the ITKF video (right):
The screen behind the athletes shows they had been competing in the "Kata individual cadets male" category.
According to the ITKF result table, Egyptian athletes came first and second and an Israeli athlete took third place (archived link).
Karate was not included in the 2024 Paris Olympics (archived link). To date, it has only been included in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (archived links here and here).
AFP has fact-checked more misinformation about the Paris Olympics here.
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