Israel is once again in hot water over its controversial PR efforts meant to lessen the growing international criticism over the soaring civilian death toll in Gaza as the IDF widens operations across the Strip.
Israel's embassy in Seoul, South Korea has released a video which depicts a major Hamas attack on the Republic of Korea on Christmas Day. It features a little girl and her mom going through a harrowing kidnap ordeal. It starts with the little girl singing Christmas carols at her school, only for the joyful and serene setting to be erupted by air raid sirens after which all hell breaks loose.
Among the Israeli embassy's objectives was to help people from "far East Asia" understand the situation and trauma of Oct.7 and the ongoing war with Hamas.
But it appears this objective has utterly backfired as South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately condemned the video and asked for it to be removed from the Israeli embassy's social media channels.
The video appeared Tuesday and was taken down on Wednesday. It was also posted to the official government account of Israel on X, but was also deleted there as well.
South Korea's foreign ministry said, "The killing and kidnapping of Israeli civilians by Hamas cannot be justified, but the Israeli Embassy’s production and distribution of a video drawing parallels to the security situation in another country was deemed inappropriate."
"We have conveyed our position to the Israeli Embassy in South Korea, and the Israeli side has taken measures to delete the video in question," the statement added.
Watch the one-and-a-half minute since-deleted video below:
🇮🇱🇵🇸🇰🇷 In Israel, it appears that they have taken their campaign in the ongoing conflict to an extreme. The country's embassy in South Korea has released a video illustrating what would happen if Hamas were to attack the Republic of Korea on Christmas Day.
— Torsum Zulfiqar (@SalmanTorsum) December 28, 2023
One of their main… pic.twitter.com/3kvRHpjkzg
The video is filled with scenes of gunshots, inbound missiles, explosions, and masked terrorists in all black manhandling the mother as she's taken away on a motorcycle - all clearly meant to convey the terror of Oct.7 events. According to one description:
The woman – covered in blood – is then abducted by an armed assailant, and forcibly separated from her daughter, it described.
The footage is accompanied by details of Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7 and subtitles that read: “Imagine if it happened to you. What would you do?”
Israel has sought to present Hamas as a global threat which could attack countries outside the region, such as in Europe or Asia. As the war drags on, it's likely Israel will continue these PR efforts in other countries. Ultimately, the aim is to keep allies sympathetic and on Tel Aviv's side amid criticisms over Israeli military tactics which many say amount to war crimes.
