The claim that Professor Yunus gave money to Israel is false: Press Wing

Recently, a claim spread on social media saying 'Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus gave Tk1,000cr to Israel.' However, this information is false, according to the Press Wing of the Chief Adviser of the interim government.

A verified Facebook page called "Chief Adviser's Press Wing – Facts" posted about this on Sunday (April 20).

The post said that a speaker named Mufti Alauddin Jihadi claimed in a speech that “Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus gave Tk1,000cr to Israel.” Some people connected to the Awami League shared this false claim to mislead the public. The post stated that this kind of false and made-up propaganda is part of a bigger conspiracy against Dr. Yunus and the interim government he is leading.

The post also said that independent fact-checking organizations found that the rumor started from a report published in October 2023 by a website called 'Bangla Insider'. The report claimed that Dr Yunus’s organization, Grameen America, donated 10 million US dollars to Israel. This claim later spread through other websites and newspapers.

The fact-checking group Rumor Scanner investigated the claim. They found that around October 2023, when the conflict in Palestine worsened, rumors began in Bangladesh that Dr. Yunus donated Tk1,000cr to Israel. However, Rumor Scanner found no such evidence. The report by Bangla Insider claimed that Israel’s Foreign Ministry had made a statement confirming the donation. But no such statement was found, and the ministry itself confirmed to Rumor Scanner that no such announcement had been made. Journalists and fact-checkers in Israel also said they were unaware of any such donation. The Yunus Centre also confirmed the claim is false.

At the end of the Facebook post, the interim government urged all religious leaders and responsible citizens not to be misled by such rumors and to stand against those trying to create chaos in the country.