The Emirate denounced “a new example of disinformation against Qatar”. For around ten days, Internet users have been sharing a video of the Emir of this Gulf country, falsely assuring that “the Qatari authorities will create a global gas shortage as part of their support for Palestine”. To support their words, Internet users shared a video showing the country’s Emir, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. He would say in the sequence: “If the bombing of Gaza does not stop, we will cut off gas supplies to the entire world. »
The video was shared on Facebook and TikTok, garnering shares and comments of support.
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To find the origin of the video, we did a reverse image search. The Bing search engine takes us to a video posted on YouTube by the Qatari media Al Jazeera on May 14, 2017. The Emir gives a speech at the opening of the Doha forum, dedicated to refugees. The video extract currently circulating on social networks is therefore old, six years old.
In this sequence, the emir does not threaten to cut gas exports in support of the Palestinian population. He speaks of refugees and evokes Palestine in these terms, as we can read on the official website of the emirate: “It is therefore correct to say that the question of Palestine began as the question of a people uprooted from their lands and displaced from their homeland. »
The Qatar International Media Bureau denounced to the American news agency AP “a new case of online disinformation against Qatar – such a statement has never been made and never will be”. The Office specifies that “Qatar does not politicize its supplies of liquid natural gas or any economic investment”.
Since October 7 and the attacks launched by Hamas against Israel, Qatar has played a diplomatic role in the conflict: it was one of the mediating countries to obtain the release on October 20 of two American hostages, held by Hamas since the attacks. . Qatar, which hosts a Hamas political office on its territory, has also had humanitarian aid delivered to Egypt for Gaza.