President Mohamed Morsy ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday to prepare a report about an Israeli ad that has been decried as “offensive” to the Egyptian president.
Yasser Ali, the president’s spokesperson, was quoted by state-run news source MENA as saying that the Foreign Affairs Ministry is responsible for responding to all international matters, especially those related to Israel.
The video clip, which was posted to YouTube on 19 July, shows an Israeli family on the beach, with the father reading a newspaper while his children are building a temple out of sand. After the children finish, the father throws his newspaper to the ground, and it falls to his feet showing Morsy's photograph. The video’s caption reads, “Two children change the world while their father reads the newspaper.”
The advertisement is for the Temple Institute, which advocates for rebuilding of the Temple of Solomon, a historically and religiously significant structure that was built in the 6th century BC and expanded by King Herod before its destruction in 70 AD. Rebuilding the temple would likely undermine the Al-Aqsa complex that hosts the Dome of the Rock, located near where the temple once stood.
