Video shows protesters attacking Israel’s embassy in Bahrain with molotov cocktails.
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Video shows protesters outside a police station in 2012, not Israel’s embassy in Bahrain
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- This footage has been online for more than a decade and shows protesters outside a police station in Bahrain.
A nighttime scene captured in a video shows a group running at a walled-off building and throwing flaming projectiles at it.
"The Zionist regime embassy in Bahrain," the caption on an Oct. 20 Instagram post sharing the video said. "Protesters attacked with molotov cocktails the Israeli regime embassy and set it on fire."
This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
That’s because this footage has been online for more than a decade.
It appears in a YouTube video posted Dec. 30, 2012, with this caption translated by Google from Arabic to English: "The Revolution Media Center in Bahrain obtained scenes of a demonstrators attack on a police station on Sitra Island, south of the capital, Manama. It is reported that the attack occurred last Saturday (Nov. 3, 2012). This attack came after Professor Hassan Mushaima’s health deteriorated in Al-Khalifiya prisons, as his cancer returned due to medical negligence in the prison."
We couldn’t confirm the precise date this footage was filmed.
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A Nov. 6, 2012, Facebook post labeled it Nov. 5, 2012. A Nov. 5, 2012, United Press International story reported that "some youths tossed Molotov cocktails at the Sitra Police Station about 1 a.m." that day.
And an Oct. 1, 2012, Agence France-Presse story reported that 32 people were facing trial for allegedly attacking a police station in Sitra with Molotov cocktails following an Aug. 26, 2012, attack on the station.
Israel didn’t even have an embassy in Bahrain in 2012, according to news reports and the website of Israel’s embassy in Bahrain. Israel’s foreign minister opened one for the first time in 2021 in the country’s capital, Manama.
And an image of the police station on Google Maps looks like the building in the video.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators have rallied outside of the Israeli embassy in Bahrain since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, but the building wasn’t set on fire.
We rate claims this video shows people attacking Israel’s embassy False.
Our Sources
Instagram post, Oct. 20, 2023
Facebook post, Nov. 5, 2023
YouTube, البحرين : محاصرة مركز للشرطة وحرقه - سترة, Dec. 30, 2012
United Press International, Street violence damages Bahrain towns, Nov. 5, 2012
Agence France-Presse, 32 face trial in Bahrain for attack on police centre, Oct. 1, 2012
Reuters, Fact-check: Video shows 2012 attack on police station in Bahrain, not Israel embassy, Oct. 20, 2023
France 24, Angry protests across Muslim world after Gaza hospital strike, Nov. 19, 2023
The Associated Press, Bahrain. Israel cement year-old accord, open new embassy, Sept. 30, 2021
Embassy of Israel to the Kingdom of Bahrain, FM Lapid visits Manama on the first official visit to Bahrain, Sept. 30, 2021
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Video shows protesters outside a police station in 2012, not Israel’s embassy in Bahrain
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