His Instagram account is smoother than the lawn of an English garden maintained with shears, his positions non-existent: publicly, Jason Statham confines himself to maintaining his image as a muscular man, and that works well for him. It would then be surprising if the British actor, starring inExpendables 4, be caught decorating a car in the colors of Palestine.
However, almost all of TikTok believes they have recognized the actor in a video of around twenty seconds, in which a man hangs a fabric that looks like a keffiyeh from the mirrors of his imposing SUV. The hood of the car is completely covered with a Palestinian flag.
A video of the scene, posted on October 23, simply captioned “Jason Statham? » has been viewed more than 3.4 million times on this social network. Other Tiktokers do not bother with the question mark and claim that the actor even “defied the police” – American or British, the versions differ – by displaying this flag.
Result: Turkish or Indonesian news sites get carried away and talk about it as a proven fact. Under the actor’s last Instagram post dated October 9 – a selfie at the gym – Internet users flocked to thank him for his supposed position on the conflict which erupted after the Hamas attacks on October 7 in Israel.
FAKE OFF
We sought to find out more about this video. With the help of a comment, we were able to identify the building in the background: it is a washing station in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A place that makes sense, given the gleaming body of the car. On TikTok, another video, undated, watch the same car in the parking lot of a shopping center, which we also geolocated in Columbus.
We looked to see if there had been any recent pro-Palestinian demonstrations in this city: on October 21, there was one in the city center at the initiative of a student organization. Several local media have covered the demonstration and no one mentions the presence of Jason Statham on site.
On Facebook and TikTok we found videos of the demonstration, where we see at least three cars of the same model as the one visible at the car wash, also covered with a Palestinian flag on the hood.
Thanks to a reverse image search, we came back to an article from the Turkish news agency Anadolu, which found the original video on TikTok. The young woman who filmed the man at the car wash posted the video October 21, the day of the demonstration. In an Instagram story captured by Anadolu, she explains that she was changing the tires on her car when she saw this man. At no point does it indicate that it is Jason Statham or compare the man in the video to the actor.
We have contacted representatives for Jason Statham. We will publish their reaction when it reaches us.