Fact-check: Wan Azizah-Netanyahu pic was from UNGA meet
In multiple posts on TikTok and other social media platforms, personalities like former PKR man Badrul Hisham Shahrin (Chegubard), shared screenshots of Netanyahu's post - which showed Anwar's wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in a group photograph...
Using the violence in Palestine and Israel as a backdrop, several social media personalities have shared a photograph posted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seemingly allude to premier Anwar Ibrahim's ties to Israel.
In multiple posts on TikTok and other social media platforms, personalities like former PKR man Badrul Hisham Shahrin (Chegubard), shared screenshots of Netanyahu's post - which showed Anwar's wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail in a group photograph.
However, the post is completely unrelated to Malaysia's position on Israel, and was in fact, a photograph of a reception by US First Lady Jill Biden for spouses of world leaders, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meeting last month.
This was also stated clearly in Netanyahu's post, which was actually to thank his wife Sarah for representing Israel at the reception.
Although the post was made in Hebrew, Instagram provides an option to translate posts into English.
"During the special event, the wife of Prime Minister Netanyahu met with the wives of many leaders, among them the wife of the President of Turkiye, Amina Erdogan," an excerpt of the translation of the caption reads.
In the photograph, Wan Azizah is seen standing near Amina. Wan Azizah also shared the same photograph on her Facebook account last month.
However, Chegubard, in a TikTok video, feigned ignorance and asked his followers to tell him what the caption says.
"Korang tengok jap sapa tu. Aku ni rabun tak nampak la. (Can you guys see who that is? My eyesight is poor, so I cannot see)," the Bersatu activist said in the video, which was viewed tens of thousands of times before it disappeared from TikTok.
Another social media personality, Ratu Naga, also tried to cast aspersions using the same screenshot, through a video uploaded on X (formerly known as Twitter).
"Mesyuarat PIBG kot (Maybe it's a parent-teacher association meeting," she quipped in the post, which has been viewed more than a million times.
She also refused to take down the post, after other users pointed out the actual context of the photograph, adding she was willing to be sued by Wan Azizah.
Another prominent social media personality who commented on this issue is YB Viral, who said Wan Azizah should have refused to join the group photograph with Sarah.
This video commentary by YB Viral, who had campaigned for Perikatan Nasional in the last elections, has been liked 11,200 times.
Yesterday, PKR's Bandar Tun Razak branch lodged a police report over the postings, which it said was defamatory against Wan Azizah.
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