AI-generated clips of Giorgia Meloni overstate strained Italy-Israel ties
- Published on May 12, 2026 at 06:37
- Updated on May 12, 2026 at 11:02
- 5 min read
- By Ayesha MIRZA, Akshita KUMARI, AFP Pakistan, AFP India
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suspended a defence agreement with Israel in April, but social media posts claiming she terminated all deals with Israel and refused to shake her counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu's hand use AI-generated videos. The circulating clips contain visual errors and inconsistencies indicative of synthetic content. There have been no official reports of Italy scrapping all its agreements with Israel or of Meloni snubbing a handshake with the country's prime minister.
"The female prime minister of Italy has terminated all agreements with Israel!! The female prime minister of Italy is a braver and more fearless woman than the current 56 Islamic leaders," reads part of the Urdu-language caption of a Facebook video shared on April 24, 2026.
The video appears to show Meloni speaking angrily as she addresses a room full of delegates before she throws a stack of papers and storms out.
A separate X post shared on April 29 includes a video supposedly showing Meloni -- with a Palestinian flag draped over her shoulders -- and Netanyahu at a UN venue, where she snubs his offer of a handshake before walking away.
"Giorgia Meloni ignoring Netanyahu," reads text superimposed on the video.
The clips were also shared elsewhere in similar Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads and X posts.
They spread after Meloni announced on April 14 that Italy had suspended its defence agreement with Israel, which involves the exchange of military equipment and technology research (archived link).
Israel responded saying the suspension of the deal, which involves the exchange of military equipment and technology research, "will not affect Israel's security" (archived link).
Tensions between the two countries have risen after the Italian government accused Israeli forces of firing warning shots at a convoy of Italian UN peacekeepers in Lebanon. Israel has conducted airstrikes across Lebanon and invaded the country's south after Hezbollah entered the Middle East war in support of its backer Iran on March 2 with strikes on Israel (archived link).
But as of May 10, there have been no official reports of Italy severing all ties with Israel or of Meloni attending the same United Nations meeting as Netanyahu in 2026, let alone refusing a handshake with the Israeli prime minister.
Other existing deals
Data from Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation show there are 27 agreements between Italy and Israel that remain in place in 2026 (archived link).
Italy -- along with Germany -- also rebuffed calls to suspend an EU cooperation deal with Israel on April 21 (archived link).
Spain and Ireland had put the issue of halting the June 2000 agreement back on the table at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Luxembourg. Italian Foreign Minister Tajani pushed back by saying that, "no decision will be taken today".
Made with AI
Both videos circulating on social media contain visual errors that indicate they were made with AI.
A reverse image search using keyframes of the video appearing to show Meloni throwing papers and storming out of a venue led to a similar AFP-distributed photo.
Its caption says it shows Meloni during a plenary session at the AI Safety Summit hosted by the United Kingdom in November 2023 (archived link).
The falsely shared video appears to have been animated from this photo with the help of AI.
In the photo, Meloni is wearing a red and green bracelet on her left wrist but in the falsely shared video she is instead sporting a brown watch.
When the Italian PM walks away in the falsely shared clip, her hands appear to turn the same grey colour as her suit.
AFP ran the clip through the DeepFake-o-Meter tool developed by the University at Buffalo, which shows that three of its detection models indicate that the video is likely to be AI-generated (archived link).
The second falsely shared video also contains visual inconsistencies.
The left half of Meloni's scarf is black, red and white, but when she turns away it appears to switch to red, white and green.
While the writing on Meloni's scarf looks like Arabic text, an Arabic-speaking AFP journalist covering the Middle East said it appears to be AI-generated gibberish that does not translate into anything and does not have any real meaning.
Other video was also run through the DeepFake-o-Meter tool which shows that six of its detection models indicate the video is likely AI-generated (archived link).
On May 5, Meloni slammed fake images of herself generated by AI, calling deepfakes a "dangerous tool" that can target and harm anyone (archived link). Female politicians around the world have increasingly become victims of such AI-generated deepfake pornography or sexualised images.
AFP has previously debunked other false claims targeting the Italian prime minister.
This story was amended to update description of photos in the image captionsMay 12, 2026 This story was amended to update description of photos in the image captions
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