Israeli Policeman Strangling Palestinian Child to Death: Fact Check

Story:

An Israeli Policeman Strangling Palestinian Child to Death during the Protest against the move of U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.

Other Versions

An Israeli policeman strangling a Palestinian boy to death. The innocent boy even read Kalima-e-Shahadat before dying.

Fact Check:

A ‘disturbing’ video in circulation online claims to show an Israeli Policeman Strangling Palestinian Child to Death. Allegedly, the incident happened during a Protest, as the innocent boy even read Kalima-e-Shahadat before dying. What you see in the video is real, but the claim associated to it is hoax.

Not Israeli Policeman Strangling Palestinian Child to Death

The video allegedly showing brutal police action in Israel is doing rounds online since at least couple of years. The incident however did not happen in Israel, it neither shows Israeli Policeman nor the boy is Palestinian. The incident happened at Malmö train station of Sweden back in early 2015.

The train station security guard was sitting on a nine-year old Moroccan boy, holding his hands over his mouth, and also appearing to hit his head on floor. However, as told, the boy did not die. Out of fright, the nine-year-old boy was reciting the Shahada – an Islamic prayer. At the beginning of the video, you can also see another security guard holding the boy’s 12-year-old friend on nearby bench. The video is often shared online with several misleading descriptions and headline stories. You can see below the clearer original video, in which the security guard labels on their jackets (in Swedish) are clearly visible:

In past after the video became popular, many viewers complained Sweden Police about the nature of behavior of the security guards. On suspect of assault, Police investigated the two security guards involved in the incident. The security guards said the two young boys were detained after they were made to leave the train for travelling without a ticket. Some local reports in Sweden also suggested the boys were involved in some kind of incident on train and tried to escape when detained, which is why the security guards took to force.

Image of Two security guards detaining the two boys at Malmö train station — Two security guards detaining the two boys at Malmö train station

So, the claim that the video shows an Israeli Policeman Strangling Palestinian Child to Death is certainly a hoax. It has nothing to do with any kind of protest related to Israel, Palestine or Jerusalem.