Versailles Wedding Hall Disaster Footage Goes Viral on X with False Context

An old and well-known video for any Israeli has recently gone viral on the social media platform X, particularly among Arabic-speaking audiences. The footage accumulated over 3 million views after a user uploaded it as a chilling childhood memory from 2009. ### Viral Misconception on Social Media

In a preceding post that gathered about 3.7 million views, the user described the experience as the most terrifying video he encountered as a child, claiming it caused psychological trauma. He described people in a club or bar where the ground suddenly opened up, forming a widening circular pit, with screaming people falling in while verses of the Quran played in the background. Later, he shared the actual video claiming it was from 18 years ago, dated 2009.

However, reality is entirely different: the footage does not show a club in 2009, nor are there any Quranic verses playing. The recording actually captures the moment the Pal-Kal flooring collapsed during a wedding at the Versailles wedding hall in Jerusalem on May 24, 2001. In an instant, guests stopped dancing, screamed, and ran in all directions. What sounds in the background is not a religious text, but the voice of singer Sarit Hadad performing her song Lev Zahav—a track she stopped singing at her performances ever since the disaster.

The Versailles wedding hall disaster remains etched in the public memory as one of the worst structural tragedies in Israel's history, largely because the moment of collapse was captured on video and broadcast worldwide.

The Versailles Wedding Hall Tragedy

The disaster occurred during the wedding of Asaf and Keren Dror at the hall located in the Talpiot neighborhood. During the dancing, a large section of the third-floor dance floor collapsed, plunging hundreds of guests, including the bride and groom, three stories down.

• 23 wedding guests were killed in the disaster.

• Approximately 380 others sustained injuries.

• The bride Keren was severely injured in the pelvis and underwent a prolonged rehabilitation.

Rescue and evacuation operations were managed by the Home Front Command in cooperation with emergency forces. Following the event, the couple left the country to live in Los Angeles. The Knesset subsequently enacted legislation to assist victims of the floor collapse and established a state commission of inquiry headed by retired judge Vardimus Zeiler to investigate building safety. In October 2004, the three hall owners were convicted of causing death and injury by negligence and sentenced to two and a half years in prison. The inventor of the Pal-Kal construction method, engineer Eli Ron, was convicted in December 2006 alongside three other engineers and sentenced to four years in prison.