2022 video of altercation between two Israeli politicians shared as recent

By: Vivek J
November 27 2023

Share Article:

Screenshots of the social media posts sharing a clip purporting to show a fight between two Israeli politicians over the aftermath of the October 7 attacks. (Source: X/Facebook/Screenshot/Modified by Logically Facts)

What is the claim?

As of November 23, the Palestinian death toll from Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip had crossed 14, 800, according to an Al Jazeera report. As the Israeli counter-offensive against Hamas and its siege on Gaza continues, several pieces of misinformation have flooded social media platforms.

One such post on X (formerly Twitter) in Arabic shared a video of an alleged altercation between Israeli politician Omer Bar-Lev and MK (Member of Knesset (Israeli legislature)) Itamar Ben-Gvir. The caption of this post, when translated to English, read, "Angry and a violent argument with the extremist Israeli Minister of Internal Security after the results of the initial investigations into what happened on October 7 emerged. Oh God, separate them together (sic)." An archived version of the post can be viewed here. Similar posts were also shared on X and Facebook (archived here and here.)

According to The Times of Israel, Omer Bar-Lev served as Israel's Public Security Minister from 2021 to 2022 and was succeeded by Itamar Ben-Gvir in late 2022. 

Screenshot of a social media post sharing the viral clip. (Source: X/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, the viral video showing the two arguing is old and is unrelated to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas that began on October 7.

What did we find?

We conducted a Google search looking for reports on an altercation between Ben-Gvir and Bar-lev over the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel. This search did not return any relevant results. 

We then conducted a simple reverse-image search on multiple keyframes from the clip and came across a Facebook video by TRT Arabia—an affiliate of the Turkish broadcaster TRT World that caters to Arabic-speaking population. The Facebook video, shared on March 28, 2022, carried the same visuals as the viral clip. The accompanying caption, when tralsated to English from Arabic, read: "A live brawl between Israeli Internal Security Minister Omer Barlev and extremist Knesset member Itamar Ben Gvir, at the site of the shooting attack in the city of Hadera, which resulted in the killing of two Israeli policemen and the injury of others (sic)." 

Upon further research using relevant keywords from the TRT Arabia Facebook post, we also came across an X post by Beit Kann of the Israel Broadcasting Corporation. This post, dated March 28, 2022, also carried the same video showing former minister Bar-lev being interrupted by Ben-Gvir, leading to a heated argument between the duo. When translated to English, the post's Hebrew caption read, "Internal Security Minister Bar-Lev began delivering a statement about the attack in Hadera, MK Ben Gvir interrupted his words and interrupted him(sic)."

A Google search for the attack in Hadera in March 2022 and the "argument between Minister Bar-lev and MK Ben-Gvir" led us to a news article published by The Times of Israel on March 28, 2022. The report carried a visual of the argument between Bar-lev and Ben-Gvir captured from a different angle. The report noted that Bar-Lev was speaking to the media when he was interrupted by Ben-Gvir, who was already at the spot taking part in the right-wing protests.

Screenshot of the photo carried by The Times of Israel in its report on March 28, 2022. (Source: Times of Israel/Screenshot) 

Two border police officers were reportedly killed in the deadly attack in the Israeli city of Hadera on March 27, 2022. Further, a dozen people were injured, including four police officers. 

The verdict

Video claiming to show a confrontation between Israeli politicians Omer Bar-Lev and Itamar Ben-Gvir is unrelated to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. This video is from March 2022, when the duo clashed over attacks in the Northern Israeli city of Hadera. Therefore, we have marked this claim false.