In a damage control exercise, Israel, which had compared violence in India to its globally-condemned attack on an aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip, has said it was a 'totally unintentional' mistake.
"India was mentioned in the press release by mistake. It was totally unintentional", said Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's media adviser Tzachi Moshe.
"The moment it came to our notice, the release was corrected and the reference to India was dropped," Moshe said.
His comments came a day after an Israeli foreign ministry statement said that incidents in countries like India and Pakistan in the past one month which claimed over 500 lives have been 'ignored' while the Jewish state is being condemned for its "unmistakably defensive actions".
Israeli Ambassador to India Mark Sofer said in New Delhi on Wednesday that this was a "regrettable error" and that his country "does not see India in the same light as it sees its enemies."
Sofer said India's name has been removed from the speech of the foreign minister. "We are taking this up to make sure that any misunderstanding arising out of this error will no longer be there," he said.
He added, "Israel stands hook, line and sinker behind India in its struggle in South Asia."
In an emergency session on Tuesday, the United Nations Security Council had called for an investigation into Israel's deadly commando raid on six ships taking humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, condemning the act that resulted in the loss of at least nine lives.
