The video is authentic and was captured on Oct. 8, 2023, in Barcelona, Spain, and showed a pro-Palestinian demonstration. However, we have not found any proof that the 400 participants openly expressed support for Hamas.
The protracted, often bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflict exploded into a hot war on Oct. 7, 2023, when the militant Palestinian group Hamas launched a deadly attack on Israel and Israel retaliated by bombarding the Gaza Strip. More than 20,000 people, the vast majority of them Palestinians, were reportedly killed during the first two months of the war alone. The violence is driven by mutual hostilities and territorial ambitions dating back more than a century. The internet has become an unofficial front in that war and is rife with misinformation, which Snopes is dedicated to countering with facts and context. You can help. Read the latest fact checks. Submit questionable claims. Become a Snopes Member to support our work. We welcome your participation and feedback.
On Oct. 7, 2023, the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an unexpected attack on Israel from the Gaza Strip. In the aftermath, social media users massively shared various pictures and videos purportedly documenting the conflict and other countries' reaction to it.
One post allegedly showed a video of a pro-Hamas demonstration in Barcelona, Spain, reaching over 3 million views on X (formerly Twitter) as of this writing. Its author commented that "there are also LGBT flags being waved, despite the fact that Gaza criminalizes consensual same-sex sexual activity and makes it punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment."
Pro-Hamas demonstration in Barcelona, Spain.
There are also LGBT flags being waved, despite the fact that Gaza criminalizes consensual same-sex sexual activity and makes it punishable by up to 10 years' imprisonment.pic.twitter.com/6oST5IgIX4
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 8, 2023
The same claim was copy-pasted in a post on Reddit.
We started our research by searching for the source of the video. First, we found out that the post in English referred to another one in Spanish, published on Oct. 8, 2023:
🇪🇸 ESPAÑA
La izquierda catalana está enferma
Convocan en Barcelona, una manifestación a favor de los terroristas musulmanes de Palestina y contra los judíos de Israel
Incluso portan banderas LGBT, cuando el islam misógino asesin4 a homosexuales y solo Israel es una democracia… pic.twitter.com/JXA6gkfcso
— Emily Habsburg (@emily_habsburg) October 8, 2023
However, when we translated the caption of the original post from Spanish to English, we immediately noticed that the post shared by @visegrad24 was not a direct translation. And most importantly, it did not refer directly to the Hamas organization:
🇪🇸 SPAIN
The Catalan left is sick
They call in Barcelona, a demonstration in favor of the Muslim terrorists of Palestine and against the Jews of Israel
They even carry LGBT flags, when misogynistic Islam murders homosexuals and only Israel is a democracy that protects them...
We found multiple Spanish-language posts on X with the video in question. For instance, one post claimed (we translated it from Spanish) that "the urban guard of Barcelona said that the demonstration in favor of Hamas Terrorism in front of the Generalitat gathered 750,000 people."
The in-question video was first published by a @CUPBarcelona account on X. CUP is a pro-Catalan independence, political organization (we translated its description from Catalan to English using Google Translate):
The Candidature d'Unitat Popular (CUP) is an assembly political organization of national scope, which extends throughout the Catalan Countries and which works for an independent, socialist, feminist, ecological and territorially just country. It is articulated as a useful space for all those people and groups with a transformative will who fight for the freedom of our people, with the intention of being a space of confluence of popular movements, in the struggle for national and social liberation of the Catalan Countries.
The original post with the video was published in Spanish and informed the gathering took place "at Plaça Sant Jaume in Barcelona" and was a demonstration "against apartheid and ethnic hatred of Palestine."
Concentració a Plaça Sant Jaume de Barcelona contra l'apartheid i la neteja ètnica a Palestina.
Israel aplica sobre Palestina un procés de neteja ètnica des d'abans de 1948. Una situació totalment intolerable que mereix tota la nostra solidaritat!#PalestinaLliure ✊🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/95CIqIJjwU
— CUP Barcelona ♀ (@CUPBarcelona) October 8, 2023
The original post continued "Israel applies a process of ethnic neteja on Palestine since the 1948 bans. A totally intolerable situation that deserves all our solidarity."
Various local Spanish and Catalan news outlets reported on the demonstration. One of the articles, which we translated it from Spanish to English, said 400 participants were present at the pro-Palestinian demonstration:
Some 400 people, according to figures from the Barcelona Urban Police, gathered this Sunday afternoon in Plaza Sant Jaume, called by the Palestinian Community of Catalonia and Bastante Complicidad con Israel, with the support of the CUP, the day after the attack of Hamas and the beginning of Israel's counterattack, with the slogan 'Against apartheid and ethnic cleansing in Palestine'. They have raised Palestinian flags, called 'Generalitat a fairly complicity' ('Generalitat there is enough complicity') and have also stood next to the City Hall with a banner that alludes to the mayor: 'Collboni, enough complicity with the crimes of Israel (Collboni , there is a lot of complicity with Israel's crimes') and the image of two bloody hands. The CUP has given support to the call in a message on the social network 'International solidarity with people who resist colonization. With the people who fight! #FreePalestine'.
The articles informed that the demonstration was organized by the Palestinian Community of Catalonia and Coalición Bastante Complicidad con Israel, with the support of the CUP. Moreover, we geolocated the exact place where the video was captured. As the original post stated, the demonstration took place at Plaça de Sant Jaume in Barcelona, Spain, as you can see in the image below.
(Google Maps and X user @visegrad24)
All in all, the he video is authentic and was captured on Oct. 8, 2023, in Barcelona, Spain, and showed a pro-Palestinian demonstration. We have not found any proof that the 400 participants openly expressed support for the Hamas organization.
Since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas conflict various images and videos have been circulated online. If you come across footage you suspect to be false or miscaptioned, you can send it to us via a contact form.