Israel’s ambassador to India, Reuven Azar, has moved to publicly quash a wave of viral misinformation claiming that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has died and that recent footage of him was created with the help of artificial intelligence.
Speaking directly to ANI about the rumors doing the rounds on social media, Azar offered a definite personal rebuttal – saying that he had seen the Prime Minister with his own eyes during his recent visits to Israel and that the much-discussed coffee shop video was completely authentic.
What the ambassador said: A personal rebuttal to social media speculation
Israel’s ambassador to India did not mince words when dealing with conspiracy theories. “Prime Minister Netanyahu is alive. I saw him in person when I was in Israel more than once. This coffee shop video is not created by artificial intelligence.”
There’s a lot of misinformation,” he said. The statement is notable both for its directness and for its source: a senior diplomat calling on first-hand witnesses to counter what he characterized as a deliberate and organized disinformation campaign.
How the Rumors Began: Deepfakes and ‘Six Fingers’ Allegations
The controversy stems from a series of viral posts that examined Netanyahu’s recent public speeches, with critics citing visual discrepancies they attributed to deepfake technology.
The claims gained particular momentum when social media users pointed out what they described in one video as an AI rendering error — a character that appeared to display six fingers instead of five, a telling artifact sometimes associated with algorithmically generated imagery.
Israeli diplomatic officials dismissed the allegations as baseless, but speculation continued to accelerate across platforms.
Netanyahu’s Cafe Video: A Deliberate Five-Finger Response?
The controversy deepened after Netanyahu himself posted a short clip on X, formerly Twitter, showing him drinking coffee in a cafe in what appeared to be a relaxed, unscripted environment.
During the footage, the prime minister briefly raises his hand in a manner widely interpreted by observers as a sharp rebuttal to the six-finger allegations – visibly pointing five fingers at the camera.
Whether calculated or not, the gesture generated considerable debate, with supporters reading it as a direct and deliberate response to his critics and skeptics arguing that it did little to resolve fundamental questions about the authenticity of the earlier footage.
Disinformation in Wartime: Why These Claims Are Gaining Power
The episode takes place against the backdrop of an active and deeply polarizing conflict, a context in which disinformation about key leaders has historically found fertile ground.
Claims that a sitting head of government has died and been replaced by AI-generated footage is not a new category of political rumor — similar allegations have been leveled at other world leaders — but the speed and scale at which these particular claims are spreading underscores the degree to which even diplomatically sensitive information ecosystems are now vulnerable to viral fabrications.
Ambassador Azar’s use of the word “disinformation” signals that Israeli officials see the campaign not as organic skepticism but as something more coordinated.
