Video of ‘anti-government’ rally in Warsaw mislabelled as pro-Palestine march

A video showing an anti-government rally in Warsaw, Poland, is being falsely captioned as a pro-Palestine march. 

The aerial footage shows a huge crowd of people gathered near Warsaw’s Palace of Culture and Science. It has been shared across social media platforms including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok with the suggestion it relates to a protest about recent events in Israel and Gaza. 

While some posts have text overlaid on the footage saying “at least one million people attended anti-government protests”, the captions also suggest it shows a pro-Palestine march.

One such post also has a Palestinian flag emoji over the video and the caption: “This is Warsaw, Poland Pro-Palestine protest, and condemns Israeli bombing of the people of Gaza, Palestine!”

However, the video does not show a pro-Palestine march. As the overlaid text says, the footage shows an opposition rally held in Warsaw on 1 October, predating the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel. The rally, which was two weeks before the country’s parliamentary election, was reportedly Warsaw’s largest on record. 

There are many images and videos showing the rally from different angles.

There have been reports of pro-Palestine demonstrations in Warsaw in recent weeks. 

Poland’s election on 17 October saw the Law and Justice (PiS) party, which has ruled the country since 2015, win the vote but not get enough seats to form a majority in parliament.

Full Fact has seen many instances of miscaptioned videos claiming to relate to recent events in Israel and Gaza, including CCTV clips of hospital explosions in Syria, aerial footage of a bombing in Sudan and a firework accident in Istanbul. You can read more of our work countering this type of misinformation here, as well as our guide on fact checking misleading videos relating to the conflict. 

Image courtesy of Frunze103