Fact Check: Photo from 2023 Misrepresented as Israeli Team’s ‘Bring Them Home Now’ Formation at Paris 2024 Olympics

New Delhi (Vishvas News): The 2024 Paris Olympics kicked off on 26th July 2024. A picture is going viral on social media, where some swimmers can be seen making the phrase ‘Bring Them Home Now’ using their bodies,  with the claim that this image is from the Paris Olympics featuring Israeli swimmers.

Vishvas News investigated and found this claim to be  false. The photo is from November 2023 and has no relation to the Paris 2024 Olympics.

What is in the viral post?

Facebook user Suvin Sudarshan (Archive link) shared the viral video with the caption, “I am so proud. The Israeli Olympic team was not allowed to wear the ‘Bring Them Home’ pin at the Olympic Games, so they formed a ‘Bring Them Home’ campaign of their own. We can’t fully live our lives until all the hostages are back home from the hellhole called Gaza.”

Investigation

To investigate this post, we performed Google Reverse Image search and found it on the official X account of the State of Israel on November 19, 2023, with the caption, “A beautiful tribute by Israel’s national artistic swimming team in tribute to the 240 hostages being held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. We will not stop until each one of them is brought home.”

We also found this photo on the official Instagram account of Israeli artistic swimming team, uploaded on November 19, 2023, with the caption: “Translated from Hebrew to English: Israel’s national swim team was photographed at the national pool at the Wingate Institute for a special photo shoot for the return of the abductees to Israel. Ten female athletes participated in the hover and underwater shots. The girls who participated were Eden Blecher, Shelly Bobrizky, Ariel Prysid, Nicole Nakhonov, Katie Konin, Maya Dorf, Nata Rubicek, two Sherazine, Noy Gazla and Aya Mazur. The pool party won over the art shoot by Sabetha Blaker and Lisa Konin. The athletes asked that the images convey a message: ‘Like the rest of the country, we are waiting and hoping that all the abductees will return home soon. We decided to film this tribute in the hope of raising awareness of crimes against humanity committed against Israelis and citizens of many countries.”

We contacted Uriah Bar-Meir, a fact checker at the Israeli fact-checking organisation, The Whistle, about the photo, and he confirmed that the viral image is not from the 2024 Olympics, but from November 2023.

For more information on the Games scheduled for 2024, visit the Paris Olympics website here.

The viral post was shared with a false claim by a Facebook user named Suvin Sudarshan,  a resident of Dubai.