Fact Check: Deepfake video shows Jordan’s Queen Rania supporting Israel

A video of Jordanian Queen Rania Al Abdullah condemning the Hamas attack on October 7 and expressing her sympathy for Israelis is going viral on social media.

In the video, she is allegedly saying, “Ladies and Gentlemen, in light of disturbing new evidence, I now recognize the horrific acts committed on October 7 by Hamas. The brutality by Hamas terrorists is utterly condemnable. Our sympathies lie with the victim's families, and Jordan standing with Israel is ready to combat extremism and work towards regional stability.”

An X user shared the video with the caption, “The Queen of Jordan with an important message.” (Translated from Hebrew)Click here to see the archive of the post.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the video is a deep fake and had been created using Artificial intelligence (AI).

NewsMeter noticed text reading in the video, “Here you go Queen Rania. Fixed it for you #AI #aifix #queenrania.” We searched the same and found the video posted on X by Yishay Raziel, an Israeli musician, with the caption, “Here you go @QueenRania. Fixed it for you. #AI #aifix #queenrania.” The hashtags used in the caption suggest that the audio in the video has been changed using AI.

We also found that the video was posted by Raziel on Instagram. The post was taken down by the social media company, citing a violation of community guidelines. Raziel, changing the caption of the post, said that he would be posting the content on Telegram instead.

We skimmed through Raziel’s Instagram account and found manipulated videos of Egyptian presenter Basma Wahba and Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdoğan condemning Hamas.

Finally, we found the original video of Queen Rania speaking to Christiane Amanpour of CNN, published on October 25, 2023. In the interview, she expresses her anguish over the support of global leaders towards Israel and also condemns Israeli attacks on Gaza. We did not find her saying that Jordan stands with Israel, as she could be heard in the deepfake video.

CNN also published a report titled “Queen Rania of Jordan accuses West of ‘glaring double standard’ as the death toll rises in besieged Gaza.” In this report, too, we did not find mention of the Queen saying that Jordan stands with Israel.

Hence, we conclude that the viral video is a deep fake and the claim that Jordanian Queen Rania spoke in support of Israel is false.