A video showing a 'pro-Palestine rally' taking place in Kerala is going viral on social media to claim that Thiruvananthapuram's Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor showed his support to the Palestinian militant group, Hamas.
The video shows several people holding banners which read, 'Indians with Palestine', 'Pray for Palestine #FreePalestine', 'Stop the Palestinian holocaust', 'End the Genocide in Gaza' and more.
(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)
What's the truth?: The video shows a pro-Palestine rally where Tharoor condemned the actions of Hamas as well as that of Israel and said that both led to deaths of several civilians.
He extended his support to Palestine and not to the Hamas group.
The video is from Kozhikode Beach where the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) organised a rally on 26 October.
How did we find out the truth?: We performed a relevant keyword search and came across reports about the rally attended by Tharoor.
The report by The Indian Express and Manorama Online stated that Congress ally Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) organised a pro-Palestine rally on 26 October in Kozhikode.
It added that Tharoor attended as a chief guest and referred to Hamas as 'terrorists'.
He was quoted saying, "On October 7, terrorists attacked Israel, killed 1,400 people and took 200 hostages. In answer to that, Israel has so far killed 6,000 people. They have stopped the supply of food, water and fuel to Gaza. Hospitals are bombed. Innocent people are being killed every day. What is happening is the violation of war laws and Geneva Conventions, which have provisions for protecting the innocent civilians.’’
He also stated that terrorist acts took place from both, Israel and Hamas, sides.
More about the rally and the video: We checked IUML's official social media pages and found the viral video on their Instagram account.
IUML also uploaded the live stream of their rally on their official Facebook and YouTube pages.
According to a report by Hindustan Times, Tharoor was removed from the next pro-Palestine rally as he faced criticism for his remark condemning Hamas' attack on Israel.
Conclusion: Shashi Tharoor attended a pro-Palestine rally in Kerala but did not extend his support to Hamas.
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