WHAT WAS CLAIMED
A video shows Sydney police detaining a pro-Palestine protester.
OUR VERDICT
False. The video shows German police detaining a pro-Palestine protester in Berlin in July 2025.
AAP FACTCHECK - Social media users are falsely claiming a video shows Australian police officers forcibly detaining a protester at a pro-Palestine demonstration in Sydney.
The footage actually shows German police at a pro-Palestine march held in Berlin in July 2025.
An Instagram post sharing the video states: "Sydney police are done tolerating disruptive Hamas supporters".
A similar post earlier circulated on X, gaining more than 700,000 views.
However, the footage does not match any recent pro-Palestine protests in Sydney.
A reverse image search using screenshots from the video reveals the clip is from a pro-Palestine demonstration in central Berlin on July 24, 2025.
Around 300 people attended the event to denounce Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, according to Anadolu Agency (AA), a Turkish news outlet.
A July 2025 news report by German newspaper BILD includes a photograph of the same person being carried away by police officers.
Images of the protester being detained were also published by German media outlets Die Zeit and Borkener Zeitung.
A video of the incident was posted on Facebook on July 26, 2025 and on X on August 18, 2025.
Several other visual clues also indicate the footage was not filmed in Sydney.
Police officers in the video have 'Polizei' on their uniforms, the German word for police, and people in the background can be heard speaking German.
A branch of Einstein Kaffee, a German coffee chain headquartered in Berlin, is also visible in the background.
Using these distinctive landmarks, AAP FactCheck geolocated the footage to Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, where the same shopfronts and street layout are visible on Google Maps.
Other social media users have correctly stated that the clip showed events in Berlin, but wrongly claimed it depicted protests in 2026.
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