FACT CHECK: ‘Slammed And Smacked And Twittered A Lot By The Anti-Israel Side’ – Did Mick Jagger Make This Statement?

An image shared on Facebook claims The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger made a statement announcing a concert in Israel in response to criticism from “the anti-Israel side.”

Verdict: False

There is no evidence Jagger actually said the quote. It is a version of a fabricated statement published in a 2013 “Purim prank” article by a news website.

Fact Check:

Jagger co-founded The Rolling Stones in 1962, according to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The image in the May 30 Facebook post attributes a statement to Jagger that reads: “We’ve been slammed and smacked and Twittered a lot by the anti-Israel side; all I can say is: Anything worth doing is worth overdoing. So we decided to add a concert in Israel.”

One iteration of the image has garnered nearly 600 shares as of press time. It has circulated following the violent conflict last month between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas that, according to Reuters, resulted in the deaths of over 200 people in Gaza and at least 13 people in Israel.

Check Your Fact didn’t find any record of Jagger making the statement in question. The quote appears on neither The Rolling Stones’ website nor his personal one. There are no instances of the supposed comment in Jagger’s social media posts or those of the band.

National and local media outlets also do not appear to have quoted Jagger as making the statement attributed to him in the image. (RELATED: Does This Video Show Military Action In The 2021 Israel-Hamas Conflict?)

The Rolling Stones played their first-ever concert in Israel in June 2014, despite some pro-Palestinian activists and some musicians urging them not to, according to The Washington Post and The Times of Israel. Check Your Fact didn’t find any evidence the band announced tour dates in Israel for 2021 on its website.

The fake quote appears to stem from a Feb. 24, 2013 Jewish Press article that ended with the line: “This has been a Purim prank…” Pulling pranks is customary during the Jewish holiday of Purim, according to The Australian Jewish News.

The satirical article told the fictional story about The Rolling Stones confirming that they would perform a concert in Jerusalem on Israel’s April 15 Independence Day in 2013. Jagger was jokingly quoted in the satirical article as saying that the band had decided to play another show the following day after being “slammed and smacked and twittered a lot by the anti-Israeli side.”

Check Your Fact reached out to Jagger’s representation for comment and will update this article if a response is provided.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases