Video shows Benjamin Netanyahu running in 2021, not fleeing to bunker in 2024 | Fact check
The claim: Video shows Benjamin Netanyahu fleeing to bunker in Israel
An Oct. 1 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) includes a video of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu running through a building.
“One of the most memorable scenes from Israel – ‘Netanyahu flees to the bunker!’” reads part of the post's caption.
It was liked more than 3,000 times in two days. Other versions of the claim spread widely on Instagram and X, formerly Twitter.
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Our rating: False
The video dates back to 2021 and shows Netanyahu running inside the Knesset, Israel's parliament building, not to a bunker.
Netanyahu said he's 'always proud to run' for constituents
The claim came on the same day Iran fired scores of missiles at Israel in retaliation for Israeli airstrikes that killed several top Hezbollah leaders in September.
But the video included in the social media doesn't show Netanyahu fleeing to safety. The post predates Iran's attack by nearly three years. Netanyahu posted it to his X account in December 2021.
“I am always proud to run for you,” the caption says, according to Google’s translation of the statement originally written in Hebrew. “It was taken half an hour ago in the Knesset.”
Netanyahu was running to cast his vote on a bill, the Hebrew-language Israeli news website Kikar HaShabbat reported at the time.
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Paste BN has debunked an array of claims about Netanyahu, including a false assertion that an image shows him sending his son to fight against Hamas in October 2023 and a false implication that he called a probe of possible Israeli war crimes “pure antisemitism” later that year.
Paste BN reached out to users who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Reuters, The Quint and India Today also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
- Kikar HaShabbat, Dec. 14, 2021, A stormy night in the plenum: Netanyahu ran to vote; Gantz and Bennett were in the stands
- Benjamin Netanyahu, Dec. 13, 2021, X post
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