Sharing what he said was a video of Israel’s national gymnastics team performing a “Bring Them Home”-themed routine at the Paris Olympics, former U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman had one piece of advice to viewers: “Watch until the end and have some tissues handy.”
The video shows a group of gymnasts performing a routine featuring Israeli flags, a large yellow ribbon and signs reading “Bring them home now” – all set to a song that was composed for a concert to raise awareness for the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7. Friedman billed the video as showing “Israel’s Artistic Gymnastics team performing at the Paris Olympics.”
Friedman’s tweet, which he shared with his 59,000 followers, has been seen 630,000 times and shared more than 2,000 times, according to X, the network formerly known as Twitter. It’s also been shared widely on Instagram, the visual social network that does not make public information about the reach of posts.
But while the video is no doubt evocative, it is not Israel’s gymnastics team, nor is it from the Olympics. According to the Israel Gymnastics Federation, the video shows a performance from an acrobatics club in Mazkeret Batya, Israel.
Israel only has two artistic gymnasts at the Paris Olympics; its rhythmic gymnastics team, which competes Aug. 9, only has five members, while the video features dozens of gymnasts.
Friedman did not respond to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency inquiry about how he came to share the video with the description he did. But the post offers the latest example of how misinformation about Israel, an ongoing issue during the Gaza war, is affecting even seemingly lighthearted posts connected to the Olympics.
Another widely shared visual ostensibly from the Olympics has been an image depicting Israeli swimmers arranged to spell out “Bring them home now!” with their bodies. According to one viral caption, the picture is of the Israeli team during a practice swim.
But the photo appears to show 58 swimmers – considerably more than Israel sent to the Olympics. And a closer look reveals that some of the swimmers repeat as the letters do.
In fact, the image is nearly as old as the hostage crisis, after being created and shared by artist Adam Spiegel on Instagram on Nov. 19. A note attached to some of its shares on X also suggests that the image may be digitally altered or made by artificial intelligence. Spiegel did not respond to a request for comment.
The picture has been used to amplify another viral claim that departs from the truth: that the Israeli national team has been uniquely prohibited from demonstrating during the Olympics on behalf of their country.
“The Israeli Olympic team is NOT permitted to proudly wear their #BringThemHome pins during the #2024Olympics,” the Instagram account JewsofNY told its 162,000 followers, in one representative post. “But that didn’t stop Israel’s Olympic swimming team from forming these important words together with the