Fact Check: Planned demolition of building in US shared as attack on embassy in Israel
The video shows the planned demolition of a building in Virginia, US.
By Md Mahfooz Alam Published on 4 Nov 2023 11:03 AM GMT
Screengrab of the Facebook post.
Hyderabad: A video showing a building collapsing beside a glass tower with a US flag on the roof is viral with people claiming that the video shows an attack on the US embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel. The video is being shared in light of the recent escalation between Israel and Hamas.
A Facebook user shared the video with the caption, “US EMBASSY IN TEL AVIV BROUGHT DOWN. (sic)”
Fact Check
NewsMeter found that the video shows the planned demolition of a building in Virginia, US.
Upon a reverse image search of the video’s keyframe, we found another video of the demolition shot from a different angle published by On Demand News on May 31, 2020, titled ‘Spectacular Implosion as Dominion Energy Tower Demolished in Virginia.’ It also shows the same glass tower.
According to the channel, the 21-storey building housed the Dominion Energy office, which had relocated its offices to a new building. Since the building was vacant, it was demolished in a spectacular implosion.
We also came across a report by NBC12 from May 2020, which carried a video of the same building demolition. It said the skyline of Richmond’s downtown is now officially different after the demolition of the former headquarters of Dominion Energy. It also mentioned that all 21 floors were brought down in a matter of seconds.
Using Google Maps, we found the glass tower seen in the viral video in Richmond, Virginia.
We also found the glass tower on the website of Dominion Energy. It shows the US flag mounted on the roof and the letter ‘D’, as in the viral video.
Here is a comparison of the building in the video and the one found on Dominion Energy’s website.
Finally, we searched for the US embassy in Tel Aviv. The image published by NBC News and The Guardian does not match the visual of the viral video.
Hence, we conclude that the viral video does not show the collapse of the US embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel. The claim is false.
