Israeli Military Apologises Over Wrong India Map After Huge Online Backlash
In a first, the Israel Defense Forces has apologised for posting an incorrect map of India's international boundaries - which wrongly showed Jammu and Kashmir as belonging to Pakistan - on X. The IDF admitted the map "fails to precisely depict borders" but claimed it was only an "illustration of the region".
The IDF's post followed tweets by Indian users, many quite furious, pointing out the error and urging the Israeli military to retract the post. Some even tagged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Responding directly to one such tweet, by an X handle called Indian Right Wing Community", the Israel Defense Forces said, "This post is an illustration of the region. This map fails to precisely depict borders. We apologise for any offense caused". This was around 90 minutes after the original post.
The first complainant had said: "Now you understand why India remains neutral. In diplomacy, no one's really your friend".
The Indian government has not yet responded to the IDF's wrong map.
India has made it clear that J&K and Ladakh, parts of which have been illegally occupied by Pakistan and China for decades, is and always will be an integral part of the country. That sentiment was repeated again by Prime Minister Modi in May, after the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor.
Over past several years India and Israel have developed a friendly relationship; in fact, in 2017 Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first Indian leader to visit that country.
Delhi is also one of Tel Aviv's biggest trading partners, behind only the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and China, and those trading figures are only set to increase.
And India is one of Israel's largest client for military equipment sales.
The false map of India's borders, therefore, came as quite a surprise .
The map that kicked up this storm was posted on X late Friday evening, as part of a tweet underlining Tel Aviv's perception of Iran as a "global threat".
This follows rapidly increasing tensions between the two and raises a new threat of all-out war in the West Asia region; this after the escalation following Israel's response to Hamas' October 7 attacks.
"Iran is a global threat. Israel is not the end goal, it's only the beginning. We had no other choice but to act," the Israeli military declared ominously, attaching a map showing West Asia, northern Africa, Europe, and most of Asia, including India with incorrectly drawn borders.
The map had concentric circles of red emanating from Iran, indicating the range of missiles Tehran has and shading over immediate neighbours like Saudi Arabia and then Libya and Ethiopia in Africa, India and China in Asia, and Romania, and Bulgaria in Europe, as well as Russia, Kazakhstan, and Turkey.
The map also drew sharp responses from Indian X users, including one person who tagged Mr Netanyahu and demanded Israel "delete it, correct it, repost it". Another person criticised Israel for having slighted the contribution of Indian soldiers fighting, and dying, to maintain territorial integrity.
Other users pointed to longstanding friendly ties with Tel Aviv.
The latest round of Israel-Iran tensions come after the former launched its biggest offensive to stop the latter from making nuclear weapons. Iran responded, according to the Israelis by firing dozens of missiles. Some were intercepted, they said, with help from the United States.
NDTV Top 10 | Middle East On Edge As Missiles Criss-Cross Israel, Iran
The two nations leaders', Mr Netanyahu and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have traded warnings and threats in equal measures, with the latter accusing the former of starting a war. Mr Netanyahu declared to the Iranians that "more is on the way" after the missile strikes by his military.
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