MARY ALEXANDER • 10 JUNE 2024

On the night of 26 May 2024 an Israeli airstrike on a tent camp in the Gaza Strip city of Rafah claimed at least 46 civilian lives, half of them women, children and older people.

More than a million refugees have fled to Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city, to escape Israel’s invasion. The bombing was in a part of the city Israeli authorities had designated a “safe zone” for civilians.

The Israel-Gaza war began after the Hamas-led attack on Israel from Gaza on 7 October 2023. As of 5 June 2024, the war has killed more than 36,500 people in Gaza and over 1,200 in Israel.

Soon after the Rafah strike, disturbing images and videos claimed to show its dead and wounded started circulating on social media. Equally distressing videos appeared in news reports, with advisories that the worst footage had been omitted.

One eyewitness described the scene: “I saw bodies everywhere. Children burning. I saw heads without bodies, the injured running around in pain, some alive but trapped inside burning tents.”

The attack came two days after the International Criminal Court ordered Israel to stop its broader assault on Rafah, which began on 6 May. The order came out of South Africa’s ongoing genocide case against Israel.

‘What the hell is wrong with you?’

Then a video of a woman condemning the Rafah strike started doing the rounds on social media, with the claim she was US actor Candice King.*

The video begins with text on the screen: “BEHEADED BABIES! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?”

The woman says: “I’m not talking about you guys or the Israeli government. I’m talking about you guys who still remain silent because you don’t want to lose your sponsor.”

The video’s most common caption reads: “American actress Candice King calls out the Israeli regime for slaughtering babies in Gaza, with last night’s massacre in Rafah standing as the most recent evidence.”

Separate analyses of the strike’s debris by CNN and the New York Times found that the bombs used were made in the US. That country has supported Israel since the 7 October Hamas attack.

US backing has been crucial to Israel. But polls suggest US public opinion on the war has become divided. Celebrity opinion is equally divided.

Did Hollywood actor Candice King, known for her roles in the hit TV series The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, really post the video?

US actor has not mentioned Rafah strike

A quick look at photos and videos of the actor Candice King shows that she is not the woman in the viral video. Their features and hair colour are different – as are their accents.

Reverse image searches of frames from the video led us to the Instagram account of another Candice King, a South African travel influencer. The account’s bio reads: “South Africa’s most followed travel family. Using our voice to free Palestine.”

King posted her Instagram video condemning the Rafah bombing on 27 May. She has posted several other messages in support of Palestine.

The US actor King has not mentioned Rafah on her Instagram or X/Twitter accounts since the 26 May airstrike.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 10 June 2024

The post Which Candice King? South African travel influencer in video condemning Gaza bombing, not US actor with same name appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 3 JUNE 2024
Published by Africa Check on 7 June 2024

“The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu,” reads the common version of a claim circulating on social media in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and elsewhere since 20 May 2022.*

Other versions include:

• The International Criminal Court (ICC) officially issues arrest warrants for Netanyahu & the Israeli Minister of Defense.
• The International Criminal Court which has issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu for war crimes is the same ICC at which Jack Smith, special persecutor of President Trump was employed.
• Finally, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Netanyahu … the International Court of Justice has also issued arrest warrants against Hamas leaders.

Benjamin Netanyahu has led Israel’s response to the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attack on his country, which killed more than 1,200 people. At least 245 hostages were taken and other crimes – including rape and torture – committed during and after the attack.

It was launched mainly from the Gaza Strip, a 363 square kilometre Palestinian territory wedged between Israel and the Mediterranean Sea in the Middle East.

The Israel-Gaza war has as of 31 May 2024 killed more than 36,000 Palestinians in Gaza by both military action and a total blockade of essential supplies such as medicine and food. The war is said to be one of the most deadly of the many conflicts since the state of Israel was established within Palestine in 1948.

In December 2023 South Africa opened a case against Israel at the International Court of Justice for breaching the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention by its actions in Gaza.

The convention defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

South Africa accused Israel of “killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, and inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction”.

The case is known as South Africa vs Israel, and continues to be heard. Other countries, including Mexico, Libya and Colombia, have since joined South Africa in its suit.

But it’s not true that an arrest warrant has been issued for Netanyahu. Before we discuss why, let’s look at the difference between the two international courts.

Cases against individuals, cases between countries

The International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) both work out of the Hague in the Netherlands to judge crimes against international law.

But there are important differences.

The ICJ – also known as the world court – is the main judicial body of the United Nations and hears disputes between states, such as South Africa vs Israel.

The ICC, by contrast, investigates and prosecutes individual people suspected of committing international crimes. These are set out in a treaty known as the Rome Statute and include crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide.

ICC prosecutor files request to judges

On 20 May the ICC’s chief prosecutor, British lawyer Karim Khan, applied to the court’s first of two pre-trial chambers for arrest warrants against five people for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the “situation in the State of Palestine”.

The five are Netanyahu, as well as Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Ismail Haniyeh.

Khan’s application accuses Netanyahu and Gallant of the crimes of murder, starvation, attacks on civilians and more. The three Hamas leaders are accused of being responsible for similar crimes, as well as rape and torture.

But it’s still an application. The ICC has not issued any arrest warrant for the five. And Netanyahu has not been accused of genocide.

Khan’s application has to be decided by ICC judges in a process likely to take months. In March 2008, for example, the ICC prosecutor requested a warrant for the arrest of Sudanese military leader Omar al-Bashir. ICC judges only issued the actual warrant a year later, in March 2009.

The new application has been condemned by the United states, which has not signed the ICC’s Rome Statute. There is debate about whether the ICC will issue the arrest warrants at all.

At the time of publication, the ICC had not issued an arrest warrant for Israeli prime minister Netanyahu.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

The post International Criminal Court hasn’t issued arrest warrant for Israeli PM Netanyahu – judges still to decide appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 29 FEBRUARY 2024

“After I finish Palestine, tell African gullible leaders that I’m coming for them to recolonize them.”

That’s a quote attributed to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, overlaid on a TikTok video circulating widely across social media in February 2024.*

The clip shows Netanyahu giving a speech. It begins with him saying: “After I liberate the Jewish people, I will go to Africa to liberate the black people.”

The audio then switches to a voiceover. “Video footage of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, talking about Israel’s goals for Africa in a press conference in Uganda, has many on the continent speculating what those plans and goals are,” it says.

“Will Africa be Israel’s next target after they completely dominate Palestine?”

The clip then returns to Netanyahu’s speech. He discusses Israel’s “tremendous opportunities” and how the country has used technology to solve problems in water supply and agriculture.

He then says: “We are eager to share this technology in so many fields with our African friends. We think that Israel is the best partner that the countries of Africa could have.”

The video ends with the voiceover saying: “Do you think Israel is genuinely seeking to help Africa, as stated by the prime minister? Or is there something sinister behind these amazing promises?”

The video can also be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

There’s no indication of when Netanyahu made the speech, but the video was first posted on TikTok on 16 February 2024. This was a few days after Israel indicated it would launch a full-scale ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Israel’s war on Gaza

Israel is a country in the Middle East and the world’s only Jewish state. The Gaza Strip is a small Palestinian territory wedged between Israel and the eastern Mediterranean sea.

Israel has been at war with Gaza since Hamas, which controls the territory, launched a deadly attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. By 28 February 2024 the war had killed 29,954 Palestinians in Gaza and internally displaced 1.7 million more – roughly 75% of its population. About 1,440 Israelis have been killed in both territories.

On 13 February South Africa asked the UN’s International Court of Justice to consider whether Israel’s planned invasion of Rafah, “the last refuge for surviving people in Gaza”, would breach the court’s provisional orders in its genocide case against Israel.

But is the TikTok clip evidence that Netanyahu said “gullible” African leaders should be told Israel would be “coming for them to recolonise them” after he “finished Palestine”? And where and when did he give the speech?

Netanyahu quoting 19th-century Zionist

The footage is more than seven years old and has been edited to deceive.

Africa Check googled phrases from the clip where Netanyahu discusses water and agriculture. This led us to a full transcript of the speech on the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office website, dated 4 July 2016.

It’s headlined: “PM Netanyahu’s Statement at the African Summit”.

Netanyahu toured four East African nations in July 2016. In Uganda, he held a meeting with the leaders of seven countries in the region. The speech was given at that meeting.

The original video of the speech can be seen on the verified Prime Minister of Israel Facebook page, as well as on the Times of Israel YouTube channel.

The original and its transcript reveals that Netanyahu’s opening statement in the TikTok clip – “After I liberate the Jewish people, I will go to Africa to liberate the black people” – has been edited out of context.

The words were not his. Instead, he was quoting the 19th-century Austrian journalist Theodore Herzl, who proposed the idea of a Jewish state in 1896.

What Netanyahu actually said was:

The founder of modern Zionism, the national movement of the Jewish people, was Theodore Herzl, and he said, “After I liberate the Jewish people, I will go to Africa to help liberate the black people.”

And nowhere in the original video does the Israeli prime minister say: “After I finish Palestine, tell African gullible leaders that I’m coming for them to recolonise them.”

Netanyahu’s speech was in July 2016, not February 2024. The TikTok video is deliberately misleading and its claim is false.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 5 March 2024

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