Misleading: Sand sculpture vandalism video falsely linked to Israeli tourists in Hawaii
A video posted on X on June 14 claims to show an Israeli tourist in Hawaii destroying a sand sculpture dedicated to the Palestinian victims.
The CCTV footage features two young females: one climbs over a protective barrier and vandalizes the sculpture using a cushion and other objects, while the other films the action with her smartphone.
The sculpture of two figures is damaged, and the head of one figure is knocked off in the middle of the video.
This Spanish-language post sharing the clip mentions the conflicts involving Israel, Palestine, and Lebanon, and accuses Israelis of having a “supremacist ideology” and hatred toward Palestinian symbols.
The post has gained around 8,900 likes, 4,900 reposts, and 776 replies. The same video has also circulated on Threads and Facebook.
However, the video does not show an Israeli tourist targeting a Palestinian symbol. It shows an incident at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu in 2019, when two teenage girls vandalized a Hawaii-themed sand sculpture in the hotel lobby.
According to local station KHON2 News, the incident took place on Aug. 12, 2019, involving two teenage girls who were captured on surveillance video damaging the sculpture.
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser later reported that a 15-year-old girl and a 17-year-old girl were arrested by the Honolulu police. Both were residents of Oahu and were charged with second-degree criminal property damage.
In close inspection, the viral clip carries a text overlay identifying the source as the Honolulu Police Department although Annie Lab could not locate the same video on the department’s current online platform.
What the sand sculpture represents:
The sculpture in the video is not “dedicated to the Palestinian people.” Rather, it depicts elements of Hawaiian culture. In a KHON2 report, the sculpture is described as representing two “Keiki,” the Hawaiian word for children, during Makahiki season, an ancient Hawaiian New Year festival.
Through reverse image search, we found a clear photograph of the same sculpture on a Japanese-language travel Instagram account focused on Hawaii. The image shows the word “Makahiki” carved at the base of the sand sculpture (archived here).
KHON2 reported (here and here) that the work, titled “Makahiki ~ Lono’s Season of Peace, Prosperity, Rejuvenation & Games,” was created by the sand sculpting company Sandsational Sand Sculpture on July 15, 2019, at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. The hotel also introduced this new sand sculpture in a post on its Facebook page.
The sculpture was vandalized less than a month later, on Aug. 12 at about 11:16 p.m. and later restored by artist Thomas Koet of Sandsational Sand Sculpture.
Other cases of Israeli tourists controversy
While the Hawaii video is being misrepresented, Annie Lab identified recent cases in which Israeli travelers were accused of hostile acts against symbols of support for Palestine.
In November 2024, on the day before a football match in Amsterdam, Israeli football fans were filmed tearing down a Palestinian flag from a building facade and burning it. According to a report by The Guardian (archived here), they also shouted vulgar, offensive language about Palestine and damaged a taxi.
Another incident was reported in Siargao, Philippines, in May 2026. Several media outlets including Arab News and Bilyonaryo (archived here and here) reported that two Israeli tourists assaulted the owners of a cafe after seeing items that expressed support for Palestine, such as a Palestinian flag. Some influencers in the Philippines also posted videos on Facebook and Instagram (archived here and here) criticizing the alleged behavior of the Israeli tourists in Siargao and calling for stricter enforcement of local laws.
