We don’t usually post feuilleton, but this story was too good to pass up. The Islamic Republic of Iran, while repeatedly uttering genocidal threats against the State of Israel, ends up featuring Israeli soldiers and praising their sacrifice on a billboard in Shiraz. No one could just laugh this off: those responsible have, of course, been arrested. As the Ayatollah Khomeini said, “There is no humor in Islam!”
“3 arrested over botched Iranian ad featuring Israeli soldiers,” Israel Hayom, September 30, 2018:
Iranian authorities say they have detained three people who were responsible for the blunder in which a billboard memorializing fallen Iranian soldiers mistakenly featured a photo of Israeli troops instead.
Media reports quoted the judiciary chief of the southern city of Shiraz, Ali Salehi, as saying on Friday that prosecutors were conducting preliminary investigations in the case.
The banner went up in Shiraz as part of the annual week-long commemoration events in memory of Iranian soldiers killed during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. This year, the 30th anniversary of the end of the war, the events held particular significance.
The original photo showed the backs of one female and three male Israeli soldiers standing on a hilltop near Hebron. It was edited to remove the female soldier and to change the backdrop to clouds, apparently to make the soldiers appear they were looking toward heaven. Farsi text was also added in praise of their sacrifice….