A video purportedly showing a Palestinian flag hanging from Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa, accompanied by coloured smoke, is being circulated on social media. Users are claiming that a Palestinian flag has replaced the Italian flag amid the ongoing protests against the government’s economic and social policies. The posts suggest that the footage captures a recent incident in Italy in October 2026.
Similar posts can be seen here. (Archive)
NM VERIFIED
NewsMobile verified the claim and found that it is misleading.
The NM team initiated its verification by conducting a keyword search and found reports published by Al Jazeera and Italian media outlets in November 2023, documenting a similar incident at the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
A reverse image search using keyframes from the viral video led to an earlier version of the footage posted on X on November 18, 2023. Further verification revealed that Al Jazeera published a similar video on November 20, 2023, reporting that activists had hung a large Palestinian flag from the tower and lit smoke flares during a protest against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, calling for a ceasefire.
L’immagine più bella di oggi: la torre di #Pisa, città universitaria, e la bandiera della Palestina.
Gli studenti scesi in piazza da Nord a Sud si uniscono alla denuncia del #GENOCIDIO di #Gaza e chiedono la rottura delle relazioni con Israele.
#FreePalestine
#CeasefireNOW https://t.co/gKu2ras3sA— Potere al Popolo (@potere_alpopolo) November 17, 2023
Italian newspaper La Repubblica and broadcaster La7 also reported on the incident on November 17, 2023. According to police, the demonstration took place after a peace march attended by around 500 people, who proceeded through the city centre before reaching Piazza dei Miracoli.
The earlier footage and contemporaneous media reports confirm that the incident occurred in 2023, not during the October 2026 protests.
Hence, it is evident that the viral video is from November 2023 and has been falsely linked to the October 2026 protests in Italy.
