Prayer in the Knesset: the video was filmed in Jordan

A video posted on social media purports to show Muslim lawmakers praying in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. According to an AFP check, the scene was actually filmed at the Jordanian Parliament in Amman on November 3.

The images show elected officials performing the dohr prayer at midday, before a parliamentary session. The sequence was notably broadcast by BBC News Arabic and several Jordanian media, which placed it in Jordan. The false caption then circulated on Facebook, Instagram and X.

To dismantle this falsehood, AFP carried out a reverse search using images extracted from the video, finding the sequence published on November 4 by BBC News Arabic and explicitly located in the Jordanian Parliament. The agency then cross-checked this information with local media specifying the date and circumstances of the prayer. Finally, the comparison of the layout of the room, the seats and the visible emblems with images of the Jordanian Parliament made it possible to confirm the location of the filming.

In the midst of the formation of the Israeli government, this misinformation can serve the racist and supremacist currents which make the Arab and Muslim presence a scarecrow. While an imaginary prayer to the Knesset shakes up the networks, the crimes are very real: the genocide in Gaza denounced and documented by Amnesty International, and the violence of settlers in the West Bank, compared to pogroms by former Israeli general Eyal Ben-Reuven. This is the unbearable reversal: making Muslims who pray look like a threat, while Palestinians suffer murder, expulsions and terror.

This is the video presented on social media as showing a prayer by Muslim MPs in the Israeli Parliament. It was actually filmed in Jordan.