Israel removes satirical clip on press coverage of Gaza war

After Foreign Press Association protest, Foreign Ministry takes down video ridiculing international journalists

BY Eytan Weinstein, June 21, 2015, 4:59 pm, timesofisrael.com

Extract from article:

The Foreign Ministry pulled an animated 50-second video clip it uploaded last week which ridiculed foreign correspondents for their coverage of last summer’s Israel-Hamas fighting.

image from entry, with caption: A still from a Foreign Ministry clip about news coverage in the Gaza Strip (YouTube screenshot)

The video sparked complaints from the foreign press. The Foreign Press Association said it was “surprised and alarmed by the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s decision to produce a cartoon mocking the foreign media’s coverage of last year’s war in Gaza.”

“It is disconcerting that the ministry would spend its time producing a 50-second video that attempts to ridicule journalists reporting on a conflict in which 2,100 Palestinians and 72 Israelis were killed,” the FPA said.

Ronen Polak, the diplomatic correspondent for Israel Radio, said Sunday, “The Foreign Ministry decided to remove the facetious video, supposedly there to ridicule the journalists of the Foreign Press Association for the nature of their coverage of Operation Protective Edge. In the Foreign Ministry, they’ve understood that it wasn’t a successful joke.”

Ruth Eglash, a writer for The Washington Post in Israel, said, “I’m happy that the Foreign Ministry decided to remove the video clip which represented an unnecessary attack on foreign correspondents and did very little for Israeli public diplomacy.”