An advertisement for a product published online by Israeli arms company Rafael created controversy this week when it showed a drone manufactured by the company apparently stalking and exploding in proximity to a person in Gaza.
The video of the Spike Firefly posted by Rafael on its social media channels.The blurry, 14-second video evidently captured by a surveillance camera, which has now been deleted from the company’s social media channels, showed a Rafael Spike Firefly drone hovering behind a person before he evidently senses danger and runs into a building. The drone chases the person and explodes. The video ends with the branding template of the company, with the line ‘Smart and to the point.’
The video is titled ‘Spike Firefly in urban warfare.’ The text on the video points out that the drone ‘Identifies the threat,’ ‘Tracks it’ ‘…and neutralises the threat.’
Spike Firefly | Photo: Rafael
A longer video on the Rafael website shows how the system is operated by troops in urban environments.
There is also a brochure.
This is not the first time doubts have been raised about the judgement exercised by the company in its video marketing efforts.
As reported by StratPost in 2009, the company ran what was supposed to be a Bollywood-style music video at the Aero India show at Bangalore to promote the sales of its weapons to India.
While the video received a lot of attention at the time, many of the responses to it generally ranged from considering it cringe-inducing to insulting.
But marketing apart, in this particular case it’s also worth noting that questions could be raised about the facts and circumstances of the incident displayed in the video and whether it satisfied legal requirements in conflict and war.
By all news media accounts, Rafael has not clarified its position on the video, nor explained why it has deleted it from its social media channels.
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