FACT CHECK: Video shows mentally ill man being arrested, not Saudi imam calling for war with Israel

Verdict: False

The person in the video is allegedly mentally ill. It is also from 2018.

Fact Check:

Saudi Arabia recently hosted an Arab-Islamic summit on Israel’s war against Hamas, according to Al Jazeera. The Summit declared that Israel’s war was not justified and that the war should end, the outlet reported.

Social media users claim to show a video of a man being removed from a mosque after preaching against Israel.

“BREAKING MINUTE: The The Saudis arrested an imam who called for war with Israel. The corrupt leaders of Saudi Arabia and Jordan are now protecting and helping Israel more than the United States itself,” reads the caption of a Facebook video.

This statement, however, is false. Through a reverse image search, Check Your Fact found that the video is from 2018. It was posted on Facebook in March 2018 with the title claiming it shows an imam arrested for preaching against Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed. bin Salman.

“It happened yesterday in Saudia, while delivering the jumma sermon, the imam criticized the crown prince’s new policies,” the video title partially reads. (RELATED: X Post Makes False Claim About UN and Trucks Entering Gaza Strip)

Al-Riyadh, a Saudi outlet, reported that the man in the video was mentally ill and was taken from the mosque and returned to his family. The outlet reported that a Medina Police spokesperson said the man was “handed over to his family to complete his treatment and care.”

“It has become clear that the incident occurred in one of the mosques in Yanbu. It also emerged that the person who took the pulpit – a citizen in his seventies – suffers from psychological disorders, has a medical record in a specialized hospital and his condition requires continuous monitoring, which is why he was handed over to his family to complete his treatment and care,” he said. the spokesperson.