Iranian city mocked after billboard to honor army features photo of IDF soldiers
Council leader in Shiraz orders investigation to ‘deal seriously’ with those responsible; poster taken down overnight
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The council leader in the Iranian city of Shiraz ordered an investigation Thursday after a photo of Israeli soldiers was put up on a billboard in the city under the slogan of “honoring the powerful military,” leading to widespread mockery on social media.
The billboard was taken down after Iranians and social media users noted that the three men depicted on the poster were wearing IDF uniforms and carrying M16 rifles, the BBC reported. The original photo also featured a female soldier who was photoshopped out of the Iranian version.
The celebratory poster was put up in the city to mark “Sacred Defense Week,” the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war.
Council head Seyyed Ahmad Dastgheyb said that if it was proven to be true that the billboard depicted soldiers from the “usurper Zionist regime,” then it would be “necessary to deal seriously with those responsible,” Iranian media reported, according to the BBC. Reports on Twitter suggested the PR director for the city was arrested.
In city of #Shiraz, a billboard is taken down overnight after it turned out its image -that was supposed to hail Iranian soldiers & martyrs of 1980-88 war- belong to IDF soldiers (with a female soldier removed).#Iran
(First tweeted by an Israeli account) pic.twitter.com/90NRC3wI9U— Fereshteh Sadeghi فرشته صادقی (@fresh_sadegh) September 26, 2018
The error quickly gained traction on social media, with the Israeli government’s official Persian twitter account posting pictures purporting to show the billboard’s removal in the dead of night.
پس از انتشار خبر استفاده تامل برانگیز از تصویر سربازان اسرائیلی در بیلبورد هفته دفاع مقدس در شیراز، این بیلبورد شبانه پایین کشیده شد. pic.twitter.com/B932M6sPKa
— اسرائیل به فارسی (@IsraelPersian) September 27, 2018
The Times of Israel Community.