Foreign Minister Yair Lapid made a false flag on Sunday when he congratulated the United States on its Independence Day in a tweet that included the flag of Liberia instead of stars and stripes.
The flag of the African nation resembles a star-spangled banner, with eleven red and white stripes and a white star on a background of a blue square in the upper left corner.
Lapid wrote in a tweet: “245 years of prosperity, freedom and independence. Congratulations to our best friend, America. Israel has no closer ally than the United States and the United States has no better friend than Israel. “
According to the news of Channel 12, he ended the tweet with two emoji – flag of Israel and flag of Libera.
The tweet was soon deleted and replaced with another that had the same message but with the flag down.
However, by then sharp-tongued Twitter users had already flagged and roasted the foreign minister, who has been in the post for just three weeks.
When Secretary of State Lapid celebrated independence for the United States with the flag of Liberia (in small print at the end of the caption). pic.twitter.com/7T3KwrWr8w
— Shlomo Rizel (@shlomo_rizel) 4 July 2021
The similarity between the flags of America and Liberia is not accidental. Liberia was formed by freeing former black slaves from the United States and the Caribbean with help from the US and the privately run American Colonization Society.
The eleven stripes symbolize those who signed the Liberia Declaration of Independence on 26 July 1847. The white star indicates that it was the first independent republic in Africa and the blue square is for the African continent.