This video shows a Saudi blogger at a mosque in Jerusalem -- not a Saudi government official

This article is more than one year old.
Published on September 24, 2019 at 05:30
2 min read
By AFP Pakistan

A video has been viewed tens of thousands of times in posts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube which claims that children spat in the face of the Saudi communications minister as he visited a mosque complex in Jerusalem. The video is being shared in a misleading context; the man shown in the video is a Saudi blogger visiting Jerusalem as a guest of Israel.

The video was published in this Facebook post on August 24, 2019. It has been viewed more than 695,000 times and shared more than 28,000 times.

The one-minute 24-second video shows a man in traditional Arab clothing walking in the Al-Aqsa mosque complex in Jerusalem as men and some young children spit at him and shout curses.

The post's Urdu-language caption translates to English as: “The consequences of licking Trump's shoes, children spat in the face of the Saudi Minister of Communication at Al-Aqsa mosque complex. The price of treachery with Kashmir and Palestine is humiliation and humiliation.”

Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post

The same video was published on Facebook here, here and here; and on Twitter here, here and here; and on YouTube here, here and here with a similar claim.

The claim is false; the man in the video is a Saudi blogger named by Israeli radio as Mohammed Saud. This is Saud's YouTube channel and this is his Twitter account, where he defines himself as a blogger and peace activist.

Saud was one of six invitees from Arab countries invited to visit Israel by the country’s foreign ministry.

Here is an AFP story about incident shown in the video. The boys and men seen shouting at the blogger were Palestinians. “Go and pray with the Jews," one man shouted. "What are you doing here?"

The spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry did not identify the visitors, describing them only as “social activists, bloggers and media people.”

According to the Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology’s official website, the current minister is Abdullah Amer Al-Swaha. Below is a screenshot of his profile on the website:

Screenshot of Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology’s official website

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