Fact Check-Photo does not show Biden kneeling before Israeli President ‘pledging support’
By Reuters Fact Check
A picture of U.S. President Joe Biden kneeling in front of outgoing Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and his chief of staff Rivka Ravitz has been mislabeled online. Some posts and articles have wrongly said he adopted the pose to “pledge unconditional support to Israel”. But Israeli press widely reported that Biden meant it as a light-hearted show of respect after learning that Ravitz was the mother of 12 children.
Posts with the false allegation can be seen
here ,
here .
Some iterations (
here) feature a screenshot of an article titled “Biden Kneels Before Israeli President; Pledges Unconditional Support to Israel.”
The story was also published by U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’ website Newswars . Another article visible : archive.ph/vEKUB includes the headline, “Biden Literally KNEELS Before Israeli President In Bizarre And Humiliating Display — Pledges Unconditional Support To Israel.”
Biden met Rivlin on June 28, 2021. During the encounter, Biden described his commitment to Israel as “iron-clad” and said Iran would not possess a nuclear weapon during his time in office (
here).
The photo in question was tweeted by Israeli news outlet Yedioth Ahronoth
here on July 2 with the description: “@POTUS Jokingly kneels to Rivka Ravitz, the chief of staff of the Israeli president @PresidentRuvi, after she told him she is a mother to 12 (!) children.” The outlet credited the photo to Haim Tzach of the Israeli Government Press Office.
Ravitz reportedly told Israeli journalist Sivan Rahav Meir about the moment here . According to Ravitz, Biden also showed her a picture of his mother afterwards.
Israeli reporters and outlets also said Biden knelt after hearing about Ravitz’s children here , here , here , here , here .
VERDICT
Mislabeled. Photo shows Joe Biden kneeling in front of Rivka Ravitz after learning she has 12 children; not kneeling to express “unconditional support” to Israel.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts
here .
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