A 47-second video clip depicting the Malaysian and Israeli flags being flown next to each other on a boat while a group of mostly tudung-clad women sing the Negaraku has gone viral since Nov 29.

At least one of the postings Malaysiakini sighted tried to link the video to the newly formed federal government, while most others merely urged for an explanation of the incident.

The posting, from a page that posts exclusively on politics, claimed it has only been a few days since Harapan’s administration and there is now provocation from those who were previously afraid to speak out.

It also questioned whether the people in the video were from “Harapan, DAP, PKR or BN who just joined the new club”.

The police have since said the claim about the incident taking place after the formation of the new government is false.

“Early investigations found the incident in the video happened in September 2022 while a group of locals joined a tour to a country with a travel agency,” the police said in a statement last night.

Cops added that they received a report over this matter, which was lodged by a man who said he was sent the 47-second video in a WhatsApp group.

The case is now being investigated under Section 8 of the National Anthem Act and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act.

‘Old video taken in 2019’

Meanwhile, a travel agency posted a statement on their Facebook clarifying another video which also depicts the Malaysian and Israeli flags raised next to each other on a ferry.

The travel agency said this video, lasting about 34 seconds, was taken in December 2019 during one of their tours to the Sea of Galilee.

“We would like to deny (this matter), the video was not taken after GE15 and stress that this is an old video taken in December 2019 and has nothing to do with the Malaysian government nor Israel, whether it is the previous government or the current one.

“For those who have been on a tour to Palestine and have taken a boat around the Sea of Galilee, they will normally go through a similar experience as what we went through at the time.

“It happened spontaneously without our prior knowledge. As patriotic Malaysians, we immediately stood up when the Negaraku is playing, no matter where we were,” the posting said.

Recently, a number of social media postings have tried to portray the new government under Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim as having links to Israel.

MALAYSIAKINI is part of a fact-checking alliance, JomCheck, made up of media houses, academia, and civil society.

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