Has the Czech government announced that it will send 100 million korunas -- over 4 million euros -- to Israel? No, that's not true: There is no trace of such an announcement on the government's website, and there are no media reports citing the cabinet approving such a sum as financial aid to Israel.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on October 24, 2023. The text on the video (translated from Czech to English by Lead Stories staff) reads:
The five-wheeler must be joking, wanting to send 100 mil. to Israel. You traitors go away. You are not the government of the Czech Republic. I do not want this government.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Oct 25 09:11:11 2023 UTC)
The term "five-wheeler" used in the text is a derogatory term often used by anti-government trolls to address the current Czech ruling coalition, which consists of five parties, led by the center-right Civic Democrats and Prime Minister Petr Fiala. The text also uses the abbreviation "mil.", presumably for millions of korunas, although it can also stand for billions, "miliardy" in Czech. In the past, anti-government trolls and some politicians from the opposition, have also criticized the cabinet for burdening the country's public finances with aid for Ukraine and Ukrainian refugees. Examples can be found here or here.
The Czech government has never announced that it would send 100 million korunas as financial aid to Israel following Hamas attacks on the country on October 7, 2023. There is no mention of such an announcement on the government's website, which also contains all the cabinet's press statements and recordings of the press conferences held after the cabinet's regular weekly meetings.
There are also no media reports on the Czech Republic providing financial aid to Israel. A Google search performed by Lead Stories on October 26, 2023, for the phrase "česká vláda pošle Izraeli 100 miliónů korun" or "the Czech government will send 100 million korunas to Israel" (archived here) did not yield any relevant results from the reputable news websites it indexes.
The Czech Republic is a traditional, long-standing ally of Israel. Fiala visited Tel Aviv on October 25, 2023, and met with Israel's top officials, saying that he would seek to have the EU Council confirm "unequivocal support for Israel and its right to defend itself."
The Czech Republic has been asked to provide military equipment to Israel. Possible help may include providing a military hospital for Israel, if needed, Czech Defence Minister Jana Cernochova said on a Czech state television talk show on October 19, 2023.
