Thursday 15 January 2015
Charlie Hebdo: Israeli embassy in Ireland defends post of hijab-clad Mona Lisa cradling rocket
PUBLISHED14/01/2015 | 16:53
Israeli diplomats in Ireland have claimed they posted controversial image of a hijab-clad Mona Lisa cradling an enormous rocket to symbolise the meaning of the Islamist terrorist attack on Europe.
The post, which also included the message “don’t say we didn’t warn you” was removed from its official social network site because of the backlash generated online.
The words "Israel now Paris next" and “Israel is the last frontier of the free world” also featured on the poster, which appeared on Monday.
“The image in question was shared from The Israel Project website,” said a spokesman for the Embassy of Israel in Dublin.
“We posted it in the wake of last week’s Paris massacre to symbolise the meaning of the Islamist terrorist attack on European and democratic values.
“However, because of abusive, vile and anti-semitic comments in response to it, we have decided to take the image down.”
Yemen's al Qaida branch has claimed responsibility for last week's deadly attack on a Paris satirical newspaper, with one of its top commanders saying the assault was in revenge for the weekly's publications of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
The assault was the beginning of three days of terror in France that saw 17 people killed before the perpetrators, three Islamic extremist attackers, were gunned down by security forces.
It’s not the first time the embassy’s twitter account has sparked controversy.
Israel’s Irish embassy was criticised over the summer after staff used their official Twitter feed to publish a series of doctored images.
They including the same Mona Lisa image. Dublin's Molly Malone statue covered in a full-length black niqab, while another showed Michelangelo's statue of David wearing an Arab headscarf and with an explosive belt wrapped round its torso.
Those posts were also removed followed criticisms.
