Have European royals taken part in pro-Palestine marches and accused Israel of genocide?
A video is making the rounds on social media claiming to show the King of Denmark waving a Palestinian flag from a balcony in Copenhagen.
In other, unrelated posts, users are suggesting that the King of Spain has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
Neither claim is true.
A post on X claims that: ‘The King of Denmark, King Frederik X, waves the Palestinian flag from a balcony as he greets hundreds of protesters demonstrating in Copenhagen, in solidarity with the people of Palestine.’
As of the time of this fact-check, it’s been seen over 400,000 times and shared and liked almost 6,000 times.
But this is false for various reasons.
For starters, the video wasn’t recorded in Copenhagen, but in Malmö in Sweden.
In one frame in the video, we can see a sign on the neighbouring building which says ‘Malmö upper secondary school for girls’ in Swedish.
When we search for the school on Google Maps, we can easily confirm it is indeed in Malmö, and we can see that the buildings correspond to those seen in the video.
The man depicted is also clearly not King Frederik.
The Cube has been unable to verify who exactly the man in the video might be, but for reference, here is a side-by-side comparison of the two.
According to the Royal House of Denmark’s website, the king was indeed in Sweden from 6 to 7 May, but returned home across the bridge right after.
This video was filmed after his visit, during a pro-Palestine demonstration on 9 May against Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024, which was being held in Malmö.
As for Spain’s King Felipe VI, a post on X says that he’s accused Israel of genocide and massacre in Gaza.
"This did not begin on Oct. 7, but it was when this terrible escalation of violence began with the devastating destruction and humanitarian crisis in Gaza. It has already reached unimaginable levels and is of utmost concern to everyone," he supposedly said.
Only one part of the post is true.
The king spoke at a session on artificial intelligence at an economic and business forum near Madrid on 8 and 9 May.
You can find the video on the Spanish Royal House’s YouTube channel.
At the event, Felipe VI talked about the difficult global geopolitical situation marked by the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
During the speech, he did indeed remind listeners that the violence in Gaza didn’t begin on 7 October.
He also spoke of the ‘terrible escalation of violence’ and the ‘devastating destruction and humanitarian crisis in Gaza’, but during this speech, he did not accuse Israel of genocide or massacre.
Felipe VI has been vocal about the unfolding humanitarian crisis in the past, praising his country’s support for the UN’s relief agency on the ground, the UNRWA.
