“The UAE delegate kisses an Israeli official at the United Nations.” What is the truth about the photo?

The UAE has maintained relations with Israel since 2020, subjecting it to criticism from users of Arabic-language social networking sites, especially during the ongoing war in Gaza.

In this context, a picture spread on social media, the publishers of which claimed to be of the UAE delegate to the United Nations kissing the Israeli delegate.

However, the claim is not true, as the photo actually shows the Israeli Minister of Sports and Culture with the President of the International Judo Federation in Abu Dhabi in 2018.

The picture shows a woman wearing a blue dress kissing a man, and next to them are two men in traditional Emirati clothing.

The accompanying caption stated that the woman shown in the photo is the UAE delegate to the United Nations while she was kissing the Israeli delegate. The posts received hundreds of shares on Facebook and X.

In the context of the relationship with Israel, the UAE is being criticized and many misleading news attributed to it are spreading in this context, such as a misleading news about the participation of its forces in the bombing of Gaza alongside the Israeli army and another about the Mufti of the Emirates reciting Al-Fatihah for the dead of the Israeli army.

In light of the ongoing war since the Hamas attack on October 7, this photo spread.

However, the claim is incorrect, as the woman shown in it is not the UAE representative to the United Nations, as stated in the misleading publications.

Agence France-Presse distributed the photo on October 27, 2018, five years before the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7.

The photo actually shows the Israeli Minister of Sports and Culture kissing the head of the Romanian International Judo Federation, Marius Fezer, during the 2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Slam Judo Championship in the UAE capital. The President of the UAE Judo Federation, Mohammed bin Thaloub Al-Darai, appears next to them.