Egyptian anger at Israeli TV insult to Morsi

Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi has told his Ministry of Foreign Affairs to respond formally to an Israeli TV commercial in which young Israelis are seen standing on the president’s photograph. The advertisement was promoting a Jewish temple to be built on the ruins of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The advert claims that “the youngsters of Israel will succeed in building the temple after the failure of the parents’ generation to do so.” A father is seen to throw a newspaper onto the ground with President Morsi’s photograph on it very clearly.

In a report published by the Hebrew newspaper Maariv on Wednesday, it was noted that this is the first political crisis between Egypt’s new president and Israel. According to Maariv, the producers of the commercial, the Temple Institute, did not intend to insult Morsi, saying that it was “pure coincidence” that his photograph was on the newspaper page on the ground.