German mission to Palestine caught liking ‘anti-Israel’ tweets, investigation launched

The Twitter account of Christian Clages, head the German mission to Palestine, was spotted liking posts deemed to be “anti-Israel” and even “anti-Semitic.” A probe was launched, but the diplomat denies his involvement.

The suspicious activity on Clages’ account was first spotted by German tabloid Bild on Thursday, triggering an internal investigation by the country’s Foreign Ministry. The posts liked by the official account of the German Representative Office in the Palestinian territories included claims that Israel only “respects its own religious holidays,” a video praising Palestinian women fighting Israeli soldiers…

… and even the well-recycled "crying Neymar" meme adapted to poke fun at Israeli soldiers, as well as other posts by Twitter users who blamed Zionists for various things and compared Israel to a totalitarian state.

The German Foreign Ministry said it did not endorse such content and launched a probe to find out “how these 'likes' came about” and “determine consequences.”

“The Foreign Ministry disassociates itself emphatically from the tweets mentioned,” the ministry told AP in a written statement. “The content is unacceptable and contradicts the views of the German government.” The diplomat himself was also quick to “explicitly” deny hitting the ‘like’ button personally. As the scandal blew up, Clages, or whoever manages his account, apparently took time to go back and 'un-like' each of the offending posts. Still, the affair means the mission’s social media team – or someone within it who had access to the account – might be in trouble.

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