Report: Police, Fact-Checkers Unable to Verify Footage of Pro-Palestine Protesters Allegedly Chanting 'Gas The Jews'

The infamous viral video purporting to show chants of "Gas the Jews" outside the Sydney Opera House appears to have been a fabrication. The Australian Jewish Association, which produced the video, is refusing to provide unedited footage to media and policehttps://t.co/cdaZ8QrYCB

— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) December 13, 2023

UNCUT VERSION - SHOCKING

"Gas the Jews' on the steps of the Sydney Opera House pic.twitter.com/kLv9QMex65

— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) October 9, 2023

The original source of videos appearing to show pro-Palestine protesters chanting "gas the Jews" has refused to provide unedited footage as police and independent fact-checkers have been unable to verify whether the chants happened.

[...] This account is significant as the "gas the Jews" chant is likely to meet the criminal threshold for threatening or inciting violence (unlike the other anti-Semitic slogans that were chanted) and because the viral footage has become totemic of the rising wave of anti-Semitism in Australia and around the world.

[...] Based on these videos, news outlets around the world published reports of the "gas the Jews" chants, including Reuters (which noted that the video was "unverified"), the New York Post and Fox News. 

In the aftermath of the protest, NSW Police rejected an application for a subsequent pro-Palestine protest. Premier Chris Minns declared that activists would not be allowed to "commandeer our streets" — although future protests were approved and have taken place — and his government introduced legislation to "strengthen" hate speech laws by making it easier to prosecute people who threaten or incite violence against protected groups.

[...] Barrister Mahmud Hawila, who has represented pro-Palestine protest organisers, shared minutes with Crikey from a meeting with deputy commissioner Mal Lanyon that took place on November 21 that show Lanyon saying NSW Police had "no evidence that those words were said". Hawila also said he showed the AJA's videos to police in October.

[...] Analysis of the AJA videos by verification experts at RMIT CrossCheck found a number of signs that suggest audio was edited. This review seen by Crikey notes that the audio is often out of sync with the video, that a section of audio was repeated during a clip, and that some audio was repeated while different clips were being shown. These suggest that additional editing was done beyond splicing different video clips together.

RMIT CrossCheck's analysis by itself does not confirm or debunk whether the chant was heard during the rally. However, it does cast doubt on the AJA video's credibility as the sole source of these claims. The report suggests that verifying whether the chants happened would require obtaining the original footage, locating other footage or obtaining eyewitness accounts — none of which has happened to Crikey's knowledge.

The only footage that appears to show the chant has come from the AJA. The posts on X do not credit who filmed the various pieces of footages, who edited it together and who captioned the video. Crikey repeatedly called and emailed the AJA with questions about the footage, including who filmed it and how it was edited. 

On one occasion, a woman answering the phone at the AJA said, "Why would we tell you where we got that footage from?" The following day, a man who answered Crikey's call declined to answer our questions. "We are too busy," he said.