Amidst the exchange of airstrikes between Israel and Hamas for eleven days which ended with a cease-fire agreement, a social media post accompanying an image of Cairo tower is being widely shared with a claim that Cairo tower is lit up with colours of the Palestinian flag as an act of solidarity. The image shows the Cairo tower lit up with the Palestine flag. Through this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Cairo Tower lit up with Palestinian flag.
Fact: Cairo tower was not lit up with Palestinian flag colours. This image is actually a digitally edited version of an image of Cairo tower adorned with LED bulbs by Bulb America. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
There are no news reports or any other information saying that Cairo tower was lit up with the Palestine flag. Further, reverse image search of the photo in the post led us to an image of Cairo tower on Wikimedia commons that has close resemblance to the one in the post. By juxtaposing this image with the one in the post, we can spot many striking similarities like the crescent moon, the background hue of the sky, and the outline of the trees. With this, we can conclude that this image of Cairo tower (perhaps from another source) is digitally edited so as to look like it is lit up with colours of the Palestinian flag.
The image of Cairo tower on Wikimedia is credited to Ahmedsantos. Taking a cue from here, further search led us to the same image in a blog of Bulb America, an online bulb retailer. As per the blog, the image shows the Cairo tower adorned with LED bulbs by Bulb America upon the request of the Egyptian government. Hence this image could be the origin of the viral image.
Previously on 09 Feb 2021, celebrating the occasion of UAE’s mars probe ‘Hope’ entering the Mars orbit, Cairo tower was lit up in red, referring to Mars planet upon which phrases like “Hope Probe” & “#Arabs to_Mars” are superimposed in Arabic.
Earlier in 2020, the Cairo tower was also lit up with phrases “protect yourself”, “stay at home”, and “be safe” as an act of solidarity with governments in their fight against COVID-19. These images can be seen here. By all this, we can conclude that the Cairo tower is not lit up with the Palestinian flag, and the image in the post is created digitally.
To sum it up, Cairo tower was not lit up with colours of Palestinian flag in solidarity with Palestine.
