‘Amazing Women of the Middle East’ profiles 25 famous women, including historical figures such as Cleopatra and
Nefertiti.
What it doesn’t include, however, is the State of Israel. The book’s colorful map of the Middle East removed any mention of the Jewish homeland, instead labeling the entire country as ‘Palestine.’
This month, Canada’s biggest bookseller Chapters Indigo pulled copies of the children’s book from its shelves after Daniel Koren, Candian Director of Hasbara Fellowships, spotted it and contacted Indigo directly.
The response from Indigo Chapters was a commendable one: the business acknowledged that the sale of the book had
breached its own policy and thus rectified the problem.
Yet, this is not the first time that Israel has been expunged from maps of the Middle East.
Vogue Arabia’s Deceptive Map Gains Traction
It is a problem that has cropped up repeatedly and while sometimes these instances are genuine mistakes, on other
occasions, they represent an insidious attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israel. Maps are a
historical record and, therefore, the removal of Israel is a denial of reality, that of Jewish people living in
their ancient homeland.
In May, a member of the New York State Assembly sparked condemnation, including from her own colleagues, when she shared an image that labeled the entirety of the Jewish state “Palestine.”
The timing of Democratic Phara Souffrant Forrest’s tweet was particularly relevant: it came in the midst of the
11-day Hamas-initiated conflict against Israel. The US-designated terrorist organization was founded with the primary goal of obliterating the Jewish state.
As Forrest’s fellow assemblyman Daniel Rosenthal observed at the time: “Just like Hamas my Assembly colleague wants to wipe Israel off the map.”
It seems, however, that Forrest actually pinched the misleading map from another source; namely, Vogue Arabia.
The so-called “Fashion Bible” had posted the exact same image of a flower-festooned Israel on its Instagram page and
website, alongside a caption that described the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a “hot-button” issue. It claimed the
illustration was created by a Turkey-based artist in response to “Palestine not being included in Google Maps.”
However, Google had already debunked the claim that “Palestine” was deliberately wiped off maps of the
region, explaining that there was no general consensus on where a potential Palestinian state’s borders would be and
pointed out that it had marked the areas of the West Bank and Gaza with dashed lines.
Despite outrage from social media users, who accused the publication of attempting to undermine the Jewish state’s legitimacy, the image remains live on its Instagram account today.
View this post on Instagram
In 2019, New Zealand’s immigration minister issued an apology to Israel’s ambassador to the country after a map produced by his department used the pre-1967 borders to depict the region, thus erasing the Jewish state.
Itzhak Gerberg wrote a letter to Iain Lees-Galloway in which he branded the map an example of antisemitism and
inciting hatred against Israel. In response, Lees-Galloway said the diagram had been immediately removed and
apologized for causing offense, adding: “The map was clearly inaccurate and did not label the State of Israel as it
should.”
Alarmingly, the erroneous incident map had been produced as part of an Immigration New Zealand (INZ) “fact sheet” about Palestinian refugees, with a spokesman for INZ saying the document was designed to provide more information about New Zealand’s refugee program. In short, it was for a website that is meant to be an authoritative source for information.
Read More: Debunked: Those Maps of ‘Palestinian Land Loss’ Are Misleading. Here’s Why.
Numerous news outlets have also been guilty of using maps to misrepresent the region.
For example, in 2015 HonestReporting previously prompted CNN to take down an image it had posted to accompany an article titled, ‘Beyond ISIS: 2015’s scariest Geopolitical hot spots.’ The deleted map had replaced the word “Israel” with “Palestina.”
Non-profit media organization NPR also opted to use a drawing of the region in 2016 that was riddled with
mistakes, including the rebranding of Israel as “Palestine.” Readers were quick to complain to the organization,
which issued a statement that admitted there were a disturbing “number of errors” in the picture.
The above are just a handful of examples of how Israel’s very existence as the state of the Jewish people has been
denied. Yet, they serve as reminders that some who oppose the Jewish state may rewrite historical records to mislead
the public and further their anti-Israel agendas.
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