Old video from Jerusalem goes viral with misleading claims

The video shows police taking action against people for not following instructions in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem during the Holy Fire ceremony in April 2023.

A video that shows policemen dragging and beating up worshipers has been shared widely on social media claiming that in a recent incident, the Israel Police are beating and arresting Christians at the church in Jerusalem.”The caption of the video states,“The Israeli police are beating and arresting CHRISTIANS at a church in Jerusalem #GazaGenocide #Gaza bombing”.

Archive link

Fact Check-

We started our investigation by running a Google reverse image search with the key frames of the video and whose result us to the same video posted by Times of Gaza on 15 April 2023. The caption states, “On the Holy Saturday, Israeli occupation forces assault Christians in Jerusalem city”. From this post we can assert that this is an old incident and not related to the current situation.

In further search we discovered a longer version of the same video uploaded by a Turkish public broadcaster, TRT World and the clip was shared on 16 April 2023 with a title, “Israeli forces attack Christians ahead of Holy Fire ceremony”. The description states, Israeli security forces attacked Orthodox Christians who wanted to attend the Holy Fire ceremony at the Church of Holy Sepulchre in occupied East Jerusalem.

Keeping this in mind we conducted more keyword search and found a report from ABC news published on 16 April 2023 with the title “Christian faithful celebrate Holy Fire ceremony, Israeli police clash with worshippers over crowd limits”.

According to Reuters report, “Thousands of Palestinian Christians and pilgrims from around the world filled Jerusalem’s Old City to celebrate the Orthodox Holy Light ceremony, under a heavy Israeli police presence that has drawn anger from churches. The two millennia-old celebrations, symbolising Jesus’ resurrection, usually draws large crowds to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City’s Christian Quarter in East Jerusalem, where Christians believe Jesus was buried. But Israeli police this year have significantly limited access to the event, citing safety concerns. The Israeli police say they must be strict because they are responsible for maintaining public safety. Israeli police have been on high alert in recent weeks in the Old City as Christians, Muslims and Jews all celebrated holidays. Police also faced criticism over a lack of regulation at a crowded Jewish pilgrimage site in northern Israel after a stampede there in 2021 killed 45 people”.

Taking account of all these evidences we can understand that this is an old video of police taking action against people for not following instructions in April 2023 at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem during the Holy Fire ceremony

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the video to be Misleading. The video shows police taking action against people for not following instructions in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem during the Holy Fire ceremony in April 2023. It is not related to the current Israel-Palestine conflict.