Germany apologises after deleting the Nazi entity off the map
Germany has been forced to apologise after erasing ‘Israel’ off a map published as a part of a military report.
The head of the Military Counterintelligence Service, known by its German acronym MAD, has apologised claiming that the initial draft of its 2019 annual report displayed ‘Israel’ and the Nazi occupied Palestinian territories in the same colour as neighbouring Jordan.
MAD spokesperson Peter Weier explained: “In the first version of the ‘MAD Report,’ a mistake was made on the map ‘Bundeswehr operational areas with MAD participation.’ When graphically editing the Jordan area of operation, Israel was also accidentally coloured and subsequently covered.”
The omission of ‘Israel’ from the map that included the Middle East was brought to the service’s attention yesterday after a Twitter user named Klemens Köhler wrote: “In MAD’s first public report Israel is missing on the map.”
Im ersten öffentlichen Bericht des #MAD fehlt Israel auf einer Karte. @bundeswehrInfo @AugenGeradeaus @AuswaertigesAmt
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Germany’s Defence Ministry responded claiming that the error was a product of a “software” problem, writing: “Hello Mr. Köhler, that is indeed a mistake. We will investigate and thank you for the tip.”
Today, the probe concluded that the mistake had been caused by “lack of diligence and insufficient quality control” rather than deliberate action or political intent, MAD said.
“I intensively exchanged views on this mistake in a personal conversation with the responsible employees,” Dr Christof Gramm, the president of the Military Counterintelligence Service, wrote in an email to the Jerusalem Post.
“I deeply regret this incident and expressly apologise. That should not have happened to the military counterintelligence service that fights antisemitism and extremism. We will improve our quality management for publications.”
