Israeli Embassy removes video depicting Hamas attack in Seoul

Diplomacy

Published: 27 Dec. 2023, 20:52 Updated: 28 Dec. 2023, 09:45

Israeli Embassy removes video depicting Hamas attack in Seoul

Smoke billows during Israeli strikes on Gaza City on October 10. Israel said it recaptured Gaza border areas from Hamas as the war's death toll passed 3,000 on October 10, the fourth day of gruelling fighting since the Islamists launched a surprise attack. [YONHAP]

Israeli Embassy's video depicts what Oct. 7 would have been like in Korea

The Israeli Embassy in Korea deleted a video that showed a what-if scenario of the Palestinian militant group Hamas attacking Korea.

The decision to delete the video came after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked the embassy to take down the video.

"While Hamas's killing and kidnapping of Israeli civilians cannot be justified, it is inappropriate for the Embassy of Israel in Korea to produce and distribute a video that compares the national security situation of another country," a Korean Foreign Ministry official said.

The video also faced significant backlash on social media, with some criticizing that the video justifies Israel's full-scale war against Hamas.

An actor depicting a situation of being kidnapped during a simulated incursion in Seoul in a YouTube video uploaded by the Embassy of Israel in Korea on Tuesday. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

The embassy uploaded the short YouTube video on Tuesday titled "Imagine if this were to happen to you."

The video features a mother-daughter duo being present at the scene of a terror attack in Seoul during a school talent show on Christmas.

After showing bombs falling on the buildings of the daughter's school, the mother gets kidnapped, and the daughter goes missing.

"We tried to imagine the terrible events of Oct. 7 in a Korean setting in order to make the Gaza War more understandable for people here in distant East Asia," Akiva Tor, ambassador of Israel to Korea, said. "For some of our friends, it isn't clear why Israel needs to defeat Hamas, so we tried to make what happened to us more immediate by placing it in familiar surroundings. I don't believe any democratic country which cares for its citizens would act differently than Israel."

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]