On May 1, 2024, as pro-Palestine demonstrations on U.S. college campuses dominated national news, a video showing actor Robert De Niro yelling at a group of people went viral on social media, with multiple accounts claiming he was yelling at pro-Palestine demonstrators in New York City.
For instance, the pro-Israel X account @StandWithUs shared the claim, garnering more than 77,000 views and 2,400 likes. That post, as well as several others with the same message and video, were deleted shortly after they gained popularity. Versions of the video contained a text banner reading "Robert De Niro Stands with Israel" and a caption in which he supposedly references Hamas' Oct. 7 attack on Israel, saying, "They are going to do it again! Again! You don't want that."
(X user @StandWithUs)
But that caption was disingenuous. While the video authentically showed the actor looking upset — that is, it was not the product of digital editing or artificial-intelligence technology — he was not yelling at pro-Palestine demonstrators.
Rather, the video was taken on the set of De Niro's upcoming Netflix show, "Zero Day," and he was yelling at other people working on the series. An actor, Mozhan Navabi, posted on X he was "giving a speech as his character" — in other words, De Niro was acting in the clip, not genuinely upset. He plays a former president in the series.
For those reasons, we rated this claim "Miscaptioned."
The account @IMTItionism appeared to be the first to share the video with the incorrect caption, writing, "It's so refreshing to see more people not letting narratives take over their common sense. Well done Robert De Niro, thank you for supporting Israel!" That post has been deleted.
The Israeli newspapers The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz also shared the claim. The latter has deleted its story (archived here), while the former's story remained live (archived here), as of this writing.
(Haaretz)
In the video, De Niro can be heard saying:
This is not a movie. This is real. Right now you gotta listen, you gotta work, you gotta get your job done. Stand by all your support [...] like you talking nonsense then you gotta go home. [...] They are going to do it again! Again! You don't want that. None of us want that. Come on! Let's all get serious.
It was unknown who recorded the clip on the set of "Zero Day." It circulated online in late April, days before it went viral with the misleading caption, because of a post by X user @ArtOfDialogue.
Getty Images' database of photojournalism contains dozens of photos of De Niro on the set, including ones in which he's wearing the same clothes as those in the viral video. Actor Jesse Plemons, who also stars in the series and can be seen in the miscaptioned footage, is also in the Getty Images. Those images were taken on April 27, 2024, according to their captions.
( Getty Images)
Years before the latest violence in Gaza, De Niro met with former Israeli President Shimon Peres. Also, in 2016, he was photographed attending a fundraising dinner hosted by Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces, according to Getty Images.