Video of pro-Palestinian march predates Bondi Beach attack
- Published on January 1, 2026 at 04:20
- 2 min read
- By AFP Thailand
Footage of a pro-Palestinian rally held weeks before a deadly mass shooting at a Jewish festival in Australia in December 2025 has circulated on social media with a false claim it took place a day after the attack. Clips of the demonstration have been online since November 16, 2025.
"Just a day after the shooting, protesters holding Palestinian flags march in downtown Sydney, Australia, close to where the shooting happened," reads a Burmese-language Facebook post on December 17, 2025.
The attached video shows a group of people holding Palestinian flags and banners marching through a busy urban road. A man can be heard saying, "Last week, we were walking downtown and we ran into this Palestinian Muslim march going down through Sydney, not far from Bondi Beach where the shooting took place yesterday."
The same claim circulated elsewhere on Facebook, X and Instagram days after a father and son duo opened fire at a Jewish festival at Sydney's Bondi Beach on December 14, killing 15 people in an attack authorities linked to "Islamic State Ideology" (archived link).
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese promised a sweeping crackdown to banish the "evil of antisemitism from our society" (archived link).
However, the video of the rally was filmed weeks before the Bondi Beach attack.
A combination of reverse image and keyword searches on Google found a video showing the same rally published on TikTok on November 16 with the caption, "Sydney March for Palestine" (archived link).
The crowd can be heard chanting, "free free Palestine" and the banners and placards seen in the false video can also be seen.
The TikTok account published another clip on the day showing the rally from a different angle with the same man waving a mock dove next to a person holding a Palestinian flag seen at 1:21 mark of the false video (archived link).
A Palestinian solidarity group called Students for Palestine posted a video on November 13, calling for people to join a pro-Palestinian march on November 16 at Hyde Park (archived link).
Images on Google Street View also show that the videos were filmed on the same block on Market Street near Hyde Park (archived link).
A spokesperson for the NSW police told AFP in an email on December 31 that the protest in the video took place in November.
AFP previously debunked misinformation related to the Bondi Beach attack here.
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