Video purported to show Angelina Jolie supporting pro-Palestine protests is from 2020
Comments were made in reference to the Srebrenica massacre and not the ongoing war in Gaza
CLAIM
A video widely interpreted as showing Angelina Jolie offering hope and support for Palestine and pro-Palestine protesters has been seen millions of times after being shared on social media platforms.
BACKGROUND
An online campaign referred to as “Blockout2024” has seen people blocking the social media accounts of celebrities and organisations based on their stance or silence regarding the war in Gaza.
Supporters of the campaign believe that blocking accounts will impact celebrities’ ad revenue and encourage them to speak out against the conflict and humanitarian crisis.
A video featuring Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, who until 2022 was the Special Envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, was widely shared online with the hashtag #Blockout2024.
In the video, Jolie appears to express support for Palestine by saying “All genocides begin with the failure to challenge these behaviours. Your generation can resist this. It already is”
The video was posted on an X account with more than 250,000 followers that has been sharing pro-Palestinian content. The video was seen 2.2. million times and shared 29,000 times at the time of publication. The video featured the hashtag #Blockout2024 – a hashtag used to encourage celebrities to take more action to support Palestinians.
The video was also widely shared on other social media platforms, including TikTok, with the #Blockout2024 hashtag visible on screen.
METHOD
Watching the video, the ESN noticed an unusual edit point at the 46 second mark, where the frame jumps to a different shot of Jolie. The next segment then appears to begin midway through a sentence, suggesting that it may have been edited or manipulated.
In an effort to find out if an earlier version of the video existed, the ESN checked Jolie’s official social media accounts but found no links or posts relating to the video.
By transcribing the video and searching online, however, the ESN found a transcript of a speech given by Jolie on the 25th anniversary of the Bosnian Srebrenica genocide, along with a YouTube video published on July 11, 2020.
“Filmmaker and Special Envoy to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees shares a message with Remembering Srebrenica as part of the UK’s National Srebrenica Memorial Day 25th Anniversary,” Remembering Srebrenica said in a caption to the video which features their logo on screen.
Remembering Srebrenica is an organisation that honours the memory of the 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys murdered by Serb troops at Srebrenica in 1995.
RATING
Misrepresented. The video is three years old and the comments were made in reference to the Srebrenica massacre and not the ongoing war in Gaza. The video was edited together using several parts from the 2020 video and shared with the #Blockout2024 hashtag.
SOURCES
X (formerly Twitter). (2024). Available at Angelina Jolie… “All genocides start beggin with a failure to challenge these behaviours… your generation can resist this” [Accessed 23 May 2024].
TikTok Available at #duet with Angerlina Jolie Alike [Accessed 23 May 2024].
Remembering Srebrenica https://srebrenica.org.uk/memorial-day/messages-of-support/angelina-jolie-2 [Accessed 23 May 2024].
YouTube Available at RememberingSrebrenica [Accessed 23 May 2024].