The Israeli embassy in Bangkok condemned the short propaganda film produced by the military government for featuring a scene of school boys painting the portrait of Adolf Hitler as a part of the national “12 values.”
The movie Thai Niyom or “Thai Values” was screened in theaters across the country Saturday to promote junta chief Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha’s conservative social values, earlier given to schools for students to recite daily.
READ: In Prayuth’s ‘Thai Values,’ school children love painting Hitler
Isarel’s ambassador to Thailand, Simon Rodded, said he was “deeply saddened” to see Nazi symbols in an “official Thai movie.”
“I was surprised that throughout the screening process this movie must have gone through to be approved for public broadcast, none of the smart, well-educated people checking it had identified it as being problematic and offensive,” Roded told The Guardian, “If we learn anything from this incident it is that Holocaust education, especially its global messages of tolerance, should be introduced into the Thai curriculum.”
In past years, Thai youth have sparked international controversy for adopting Nazi symbols for amusement including students at the elite Chulalongkorn University, who created a signboard of “superheroes” to celebrate their graduation which featured Hitler alongside Superman, Batman and the Incredible Hulk.
A senior Thai official called the situation a “misunderstanding” and defended the film.
“We won’t stop the project, but we will replace that problematic picture with another, more proper one,” Panadda Diskul, an official in Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s office, said.
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