Israeli Embassy in Seoul removes footage depicting hypothetical Hamas attack on S.Korea
Seoul, Dec 27 (IANS) The Israeli Embassy in South Korea on Wednesday deleted a self-produced controversial video featuring an imaginary case of Seoul being attacked by the Hamas group, after the South Korean government expressed concern over the matter.
On its social media channels, the embassy on Tuesday uploaded the video featuring a potential terror attack in Seoul on the Christmas day, Yonhap news agency reported.
In the footage, a young mother looks at her cellphone as it suddenly issues an air raid warning while she is watching her daughter sing carols at a school talent show. Soon the sounds of gunfire and explosions run through the city.
The mother, covered in blood, is kidnapped by armed men, and despite her efforts to search for her daughter, she only sees the red gloves given to her as a present left on the ground.
The footage then shows subtitles reading, “Imagine if it happened to you. What would you do?” and lists the fatalities and other facts about Hamas’ attacks on Israel.
The Israeli Embassy said the footage was made to help South Koreans better understand the feelings of its own people. But it removed the post from its social media accounts on Wednesday as public criticism grew.
“Hamas’ killing and kidnapping of Israeli civilians cannot be justified, but it is not considered appropriate for the Israeli Embassy in Korea to produce and distribute a video comparing this to the security situation of another country,” Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said.
“We conveyed our position to the Israeli Embassy in Korea, and the Israeli side deleted the video,” the Ministry added.
–IANS
int/khz
