No, this is not a photo of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s ex-wife and children in Israel
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on June 18, 2019 at 11:30
- 3 min read
- By AFP Pakistan
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This Facebook post, which has been shared more than 4,600 times since it was published on June 3, 2019, contains the photo and an Urdu-language caption which translates as:
“These brothers and sister are wearing Jewish dresses and are standing outside a Jewish worship place in Israeli city of Tel Aviv, meanwhile their father wants to make Pakistan a Medina-like state.”
Here is the Israeli government website for the city of Tel Aviv. Medina in Saudi Arabia is one of Islam’s two holiest cities, here is an Encyclopaedia Brittanica page about it.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:
The photo shows Jemima Goldsmith, a British TV producer and journalist who was formerly married to Pakistan’s now Prime Minister Imran Khan, with their two sons and a woman who appears to also be a family member.
Here is Goldsmith’s verified Twitter account and here is Imran Khan’s.
The same photo has also been shared in this Facebook post with an identical claim.
The claim is false; Goldsmith gave the context of the photograph in this August 2018 tweet reply to another user who had made the same claim.
She wrote, in part: “The photo is taken on a family holiday in Mexico (not Israel) and we are wearing ponchos (not Jewish religious dress)”.
Her tweet is embedded below:
This tweet is staggeringly ignorant and would be funny if it weren’t dangerous. The photo is taken on a family holiday in Mexico (not Israel) and we are wearing ponchos (not Jewish religious dress) @GhinwaBhutto - shame on you. https://t.co/PenNwbe6Mt
— Jemima Goldsmith (@Jemima_Khan) August 6, 2018
The twitter exchange above was reported by Pakistani newspapers The News here and The Express Tribune here at the time.
Traditional Jewish prayer shawls can resemble ponchos and can be of any colour -- but are usually white with blue, black or white stripes. This Jewish cultural website describes the shawls, called the tallit.
The garments worn by the family in the photo are much more similar to Mexican ponchos, a typical example of which can be seen in the screenshot below from this California-based online store called Official Fiesta:
In contrast, examples of Jewish tallit shawls can be seen in the screenshot below, from this Israel-based online store called Ajudaica:
The building in the background of the photograph in the misleading post is partially obscured, making the image difficult to geolocate.
Goldsmith’s family does own a hotel in Mexico, as detailed in this report by online magazine VICE and this report in Luxurious Magazine.
Below is a screenshot comparison of a photo of the hotel building in Luxurious Magazine report (L) and the family photo (R). Similarities can be seen such as distinctive archways and the colour of the building:
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