Germany apologizes after Israel was omitted from a military map of the Middle East

(Worthy News) – The head of Germany’s Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) has apologized “expressly” for the omission of Israel from a map of the Middle East in his department’s 2019 annual report, the Middle East Monitor reports. A MAD investigation concluded on May 7 that there had been a mistake caused by “lack of diligence and insufficient quality control rather than deliberate action or political intent.”

According to the Middle East Monitor (MEMO), the omission came to light on May 6 when German Twitter user Klemens Köhler tweeted: “In MAD’s first public report Israel is missing on the map.” The map showed Israel and the Palestinian territories as though they were part of Jordan, the Middle East Monitor reports.

In response, the German Ministry of Defense quickly corrected the mistake and tweeted: “Care of course takes precedence – we made a mistake on the map of the MAD report, we apologize and corrected it immediately. Thanks to everyone who made us aware of this! Here is the link to the updated version of the report.”

MAD spokesperson Peter Weier explained to MEMO: “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.”

Writing in an email to the Jerusalem post, President of the Military Counterintelligence Service Christof Gramm said: “I intensively exchanged views on this mistake in a personal conversation with the responsible employees. 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.”

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