The head of Germany's Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD), Dr. Christof Gramm, apologized to Tel Aviv for omitting Israel from its map, stressing that the mistake should not have happened for an institution "that fights antisemitism and extremism".
“I intensively exchanged views on this mistake in a personal conversation with the responsible employees. I deeply regret this incident and expressly apologize. That should not have happened to the military counter-intelligence service that fights antisemitism and extremism. We will improve our quality management for publications", Gramm said in a Bundeswehr press release.
The mistake showed up in MAD's map of its Middle East operational area for German military forces and the Counterintelligence Service. According to MAD spokesman Peter Weier, Israel was accidentally given the same color as the territory of Jordan in the graphic edition of the map.
Weier stressed that there is "no indication" of any deliberate political action in the error. Earlier on Wednesday, the German Defence Ministry characterized the mistake as a "software problem", stating in a later press release that the mistake was made while the production team was working with Adobe Photoshop tools.
The incident came to light on Wednesday, after a Twitter user noticed that the MAD report included a map of Middle East that appeared not to show the state of Israel.
Im ersten öffentlichen Bericht des #MAD fehlt Israel auf einer Karte. @bundeswehrInfo @AugenGeradeaus @AuswaertigesAmt pic.twitter.com/3NOCkaZ23w
— Klemens Köhler (@WarumDresden) May 6, 2020
The tweet reads: "In the first public report of the #MAD Israel is missing on a map".
Germany's Ministry of Defence quickly responded in the feed, admitting that a mistake had taken place and that an investigation was being conducted.
