Circulating pepper spray clip unrelated to anti-Herzog protest in Australia
A rally in Sydney to protest Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s visit to Australia in February 2026 turned violent, with police using pepper spray and scuffling with demonstrators. But a video shared online and in news reports supposedly filmed during the clashes is old; the man who took it in January told AFP it had “nothing to do with any protest at all”.
“Sydney police clash with protesters, deploying pepper spray amid escalating tensions,” reads a Facebook post published February 10, 2026.
The video — which was also shared on the Australia-based page’s Instagram account — shows the police repeatedly shoving a man in a tan-coloured shirt, who kept getting back up, and then later spraying him in the face with what appeared to be a canned aerosol.
Snippets of the footage also appeared at the four-second mark of a video compilation shared by Al Jazeera on Facebook and X on February 11.
“Australian police are facing mounting scrutiny after a violent crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests,” reads the caption, with the footage labelled “9 Feb 2026”.
Screen captures of false posts taken on February 12, 2026, with the red X added by AFP
The videos circulated online after a February 9 demonstration against Israel’s President Isaac Herzog (archived link)
He had been invited by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to console the Jewish community after an antisemitic mass shooting on Bondi Beach on December 14, which killed 15 people (archived link).
The rally in Sydney turned violent as police scuffled with protesters, hitting them and members of the media, including AFP, with pepper spray.
But the video shared in posts was not taken during the recent rally.
A reverse image search using keyframes from the clip found an uncropped version in a January 5 news article about a man pepper-sprayed during his confrontation with police at Sydney’s George Street (archived link).
The footage was credited to Instagram user @topixbne, who posted the video on January 4 (archived here and here).
Screenshot comparison of false Facebook post (L) with Instagram post from January 2026. Red X and highlight added by AFP.
“It was filmed 2nd Jan (and) had nothing to do with any protest at all,” Topix, a Brisbane-based rapper, told AFP via Instagram on February 12.
He said the confrontation was between an individual and the police, and urged those circulating the clip as the February 9 protest to “stop spreading misinformation”.
New South Wales police told AFP that on the night of January 2, “police were called to a licensed premises on George Street, Sydney, following reports of an intoxicated man refusing to leave the premises”.
The 18-year-old was arrested and taken to hospital for assessment.
He was charged with “excluded person remain in vicinity of licensed premises, hinder or resist police officer in the execution of duty, possess prohibited drug, and breach of bail”, the police media unit said in a February 13 email.
