The Israeli Embassy in South Korea sparked controversy after releasing a hypothetical video portraying a Hamas attack on Israel as a potential attack on South Korea. The video was removed within a day due to the backlash.
On the 26th, the Israeli Embassy posted a video titled ‘Imagine if this happened to you’ on various social media platforms. The video depicted a terrorist attack occurring in Seoul on Christmas day abducting civilians
In the video, a mother and her young daughter are seen evacuating during a school event due to an air raid warning. However, a bomb drops on the building and the mother bleeding from her head is kidnapped by armed assailants. The mother searches for her child but only finds the red mitten her daughter wore that day. The video ends with the caption ‘Imagine if this happened to you.’ The embassy, in a press release, stated that “the video depicting a terrorist attack on Christmas Day was produced with the intention of better conveying the feelings of Israelis to the Korean people.”
However, some criticized the video for unnecessarily provoking security concerns on the Korean Peninsula. Netizens commented “I might understand if it was another country, but Korea is a divided nation and a cease-fire state where war can break out at any time. This crosses the line,” “No matter what, this is not right,” and “People from other countries might misunderstand that the Korean Peninsula is in the midst of violence.” Following the controversy, the embassy ultimately removed the video on the 27th.
By. Ja Ah Kim
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