Does a video show a pro-Palestinian rally in Japan? No, that's not true: The rally to support Palestinians amid the Hamas-Israel conflict took place in front of the Embassy of Israel in Seoul, Korea.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published by @suuuuuuuuu338 on TikTok on Nov. 2, 2023 under the title "JAPAN." The video also includes two Japanese flag emojis and two Palestinian flag emojis. It opened with the speaker saying in Korean, as translated by Lead Stories staff:
It is the Palestinians, not Israel, who face overwhelming military retaliation. Those who are speaking nonsense, please go home. But did you know? The Palestinians currently have no home to return to.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Nov 8 00:31:07 2023 UTC)
The first indication that the video was not captured in Japan is that the speaker is speaking Korean, not Japanese, and the subtitles are also in Korean. The watermark on the upper right corner "YTN" refers to a Korean news outlet as well.
A search for the video and YTN leads to a report published by the outlet on Oct. 18, 2023 regarding rallies that took place in Korea that supported either sides of the ongoing conflict, including a pro-Israel rally in Gwanghwamun, Seoul and a pro-Palestinian rally at the Embassy of Israel, also in Seoul.
The YTN article included a video containing the clip shared on TikTok, and the outlet published the video on YouTube and on DailyMotion as well. The same speaker can be seen at the 1:25 timestamp of the YTN videos, showing an activist identified as Lee Won-Woong, who is part of the Workers' Solidarity labor movement group. The report said his remarks were during pro-Palestinian rally at the Israeli Embassy in Korea to call for an end to Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
His quote in Korean, translated in English by Lead Stories staff:
It is the Palestinians, not Israel, who are currently under existential threat. It is the Palestinians, not Israel, who face overwhelming military retaliation.
A longer or "full" version of Lee's remarks was first published on YouTube by YTN on Oct. 13, 2023. The timestamps 0:07-0:21 match the quote in the TikTok video.
The TikTok clip also shows attendees of the rally chanting at the 0:14 timestamp, "์ด์ค๋ผ์์ ํญ๊ฒฉ์ ์ค๋จํ๋ผ, ์ด์ค๋ผ์์ ๋ง์ ํ๋ ์คํ์ธ ๋ํ ์ ๋นํ๋ค." The chant, as translated by Lead Stories staff:
Israel, stop the bombing (attacks). Palestine's fight against Israel is also justifiable.
The same chant, people and camera angle can be seen at the 0:44 timestamp of the longer YTN video.
The TikTok ends with signage reading "Victory to Palestinian Resistance," which is also visible at the 0:47 timestamp of the YTN video.
