The very idea that a major publisher, HarperCollins, would release an atlas for use by English-speaking children in schools in the Middle East which fails to show Israel is outrageous.
The state of Israel has been a fact of life in the region for 66 years and has been recognised as such by the most populous Arab country, Egypt, as well as Israel’s nearest neighbour, Jordan. Even Yasser Arafat, father of the Palestinian independence movement, was prepared to acknowledge Israel at the Camp David Summit hosted by former President Clinton in 2000.
It is encouraging to learn that once the existence of the atlas was reported in The Tablet, the story was picked up by other media and there were protests from both the Jewish and Christian communities. HarperCollins has now agreed to remove the offending atlas from the shelves and to pulp the remaining stock.
But that it made it all the way to the bookshelves, with no one at HarperCollins putting on the brakes, shows how distorted the teaching of Middle East history has become in Arab countries.
The offending map shows the West Bank marked immediately adjacent to the Gaza strip as if Israel did not exist. In effect, HarperCollins achieved what the former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened at the stroke of a pen: wiping Israel off the map.
As a HarperCollins author (my biography of Lord Weinstock was published in 1999) I know first-hand the strenuous tests for accuracy and legality which publishers go through before releasing any book. So it is extraordinary that this went through so many checks without anyone noticing. One can only conclude it was a deliberate decision taken by the publishers purely for commercial reasons. What makes it even more surprising is that the publishers are part of Rupert Murdoch’s diverse media empire which, over the decades, has strongly supported the Jewish state.
What this episode illustrates is the distorted view of Israel that exists in much of the Middle East. The Board of Deputies of British Jews has regularly complained about the use of textbooks and videos in the Palestinian territories that use ancient anti-Semitic tropes and embed hatred in young minds, making peace in the region that much more difficult.
The truth of the matter is that from a point of view of economic geography, Israel is a vital part of the region. It is one of the few Middle Eastern states that qualifies as a member of the OECD, the organisation of advanced economies based in Paris.
The conventional way of drawing Israel on the map is to use the so-called “Green Line” – drawn after the 1948 War of Independence and the recognition of Israel as a state by the United Nations – as the formal border. Dotted lines are then drawn to show the so-called disputed territories of the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since the Six-Day War in 1967.
It is this disputed territory that has been the subject of successive rounds of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians as they seek to establish two states, Israel and Palestine, sitting alongside each other. What is comforting is that in the case of the HarperCollins atlas, Christians as well as the Jewish community have been anxious to correct an inaccuracy which smacks of anti-Zionism and borders on anti-Semitism. It is welcome that HarperCollins has withdrawn the atlas from sale, and hopefully it will be on guard against further offensive publications.
But one would also like to see the diplomatic and foreign policy community fully engaged in combating anti-Semitic tropes and denials of the horrors of the Holocaust that still form part of the curriculum and textbooks in many parts of the Arab world.
Alex Brummer is a vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and chairs the International Division
Loading ...
What do you think?
You can post as a subscriber user ...
User comments (4)
Cartographic publishers have wrestled with additions ,deletions and correction for decades.Cartographic publishing is not for the faith hearted.
For a map maker the question is not whether to add Israel to the map its a question of when to add it.
We have sold hundreds of Atlases in the Middle East ( recently) including the world’s largest atlas Earth Platinum , all these Atlases have Israel clearly marked.
Now its time.
Gordon Cheers
Millennium House
Great reporting by The Tablet. Now, how about some follow-up? Which specific individual(s) at HarperCollins made the decision to deny the existence of Israel? Has any disciplinary action been taken as a result? When was the decision made, how many atlases omitting Israel were produced, how many were sold and how much did they cost? How many are being pulped? What if any actions have been taken or are being considered to prevent a similar action of this sort in the future?
A comforting discovery for this reader was the fact that Fox News, part of News Corporation, which also owns Harper Collins and its offending map division covered this story, something that the N.Y. Times may not have done had one of its links been guilty of such publishing prostitution. An apology is not sufficient. Mr. Murdoch needs to clean some house. Sadly, the non-Muslim world continues to go blind to the fact that Islam has been at war against all non-Muslims for 1400 years .
Double standards?___
Mr Brummer picks and chooses. He is happy to cite the UN's recognition of Israel and its borders following the 1948 war against Palestine and Palestinians. But he is strangely silent regarding 1967. The so-called “disputed territories” are disputed only by Israel and its supporters. The UN has declared it an illegal occupation and has directed that Israel should withdraw.___
Like Israel and its supporters, Mr Brummer thinks he can have it both ways. He can't. It might take longer than his and my lifetimes, but justice will eventually prevail for Palestine. It's something justice does.___
There are many stumbling blocks on the way to this justice. Israel is one, Palestine is another, the press is the third. Until we get full and balanced reporting (including from The Tablet) on what happens in both Palestine and Israel on a day-to-day basis, the world will remain pro-Israeli rather than pro-justice.___
It should not need to be said that being pro-justice or anti-Israel as it currently operates is anti-semitic but unfortunately it is often the case that the distinction needs to be pointed out to the (sometimes wilfully) blind.___ That said, HarperCollins was stupid beyond belief.