Website 'wiped Israel off the map'

[shira]

A website has been admonished for apparently wiping the state of Israel off the map. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned the Palestinian Diplomatic Mission to the UK from using a "misleading" interactive map on its website.

Headed Discover Palestine, the map featured the whole of Israel, in addition to the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in the red, green and black colours of the Palestinian flag. It also included links to tourist information which did not refer to the state of Israel.

A string of complaints objected to the implication that the entire area on the map was Palestine and the state of Israel did not exist, a view the ASA upheld. The ASA said: "We considered that the average consumer would infer from the map and the linked information that the total area represented by the map was the occupied Palestinian territories. Because this was not the case we concluded that the website was misleading."

According to its website, the Palestinian Diplomatic Mission to the UK is a representative of the Palestinian National Authority and represents the interest of Palestinians in the UK.

more...
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/website-wiped-israel-off-map-000503816.html

=================================

The PA is notorious for publishing maps replacing all Israel with Palestine
http://palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=413&fld_id=556&doc_id=4275

[RZM]

1. That's pretty bad

It would be less of a problem if this were some rinky-dink Palestinian firm. But the diplomatic mission to the UK is a pretty big deal. That's essentially their embassy in waiting.

It's like a sadder, more serious version of this minor flap in Michigan a few years ago:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113225148

[azurnoir]

2. a couple of things the ASA is not as it's name would imply a government agency

it is an independent watchdog group that takes complaints from anyone, the Palestinian mission has already changed the map as noted in the article

In its defence, the Diplomatic Mission claimed it had already changed the title of the interactive map to "Palestine in 1948", stating that it depicted historical Palestine.

It also said the colour coding had been changed to clearly demarcate Israel from the Palestinian territories.

Despite noting the website's amended map, the ASA argued the original marketing had been misleading and breached its code of advertising practice. The ASA said the map must not appear again in its original form.

this is the second thread on the subject did you not know that or did you 'like' the yahoo story better for some reason?

Edited on Tue Dec-06-11 10:46 PM by King_David

Tourist ad on site describes Jaffa and Haifa as part of "occupied Palestine," and Jerusalem as "in dispute."

The Palestinian Authority Mission to the UK breached British advertising regulations in featuring on its website an interactive map of the whole of Israel under the heading “Discover Palestine.”

The British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled on Wednesday that the Palestinian delegation’s map – in the red, green and black colors of the Palestinian flag – breached its code on misleading advertising in six instances.

“We considered that the average consumer would infer from the map and the linked information that the total area represented by the map was the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Because this was not the case, we concluded that the website was misleading,” the ASA said in its ruling.

The website described Jaffa as “a Palestinian Arab city... military occupied by Israel since 1948,” and Haifa as part of Palestine.

“We noted that, according to the UK Foreign Office, Jaffa and Haifa were in Israel. We considered that the website implied that the cities were in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Because we understood that they were not, we concluded that the website was misleading,” the regulator ruled

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=248440

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x375277

[shira]

3. Not a big deal in your opinion, right? Maybe it's demonization bringing it up at all?

Thanks for pointing out David's post from Dec. 6th. I totally missed it.

[azurnoir]

4. well your most welcome

I'm sure the previous post about a tourism ad went right past you but it seems strange that you would think yahoo more reliable JPost on this subject or did that miss you too?

eta do you think tourists traveling to that area of the ME would actually think Jaffa and Haifa part of Palestine as this nongovernmental watchdog groups claims?

[shira]

5. Seems the map doesn't bother you at all...

It's the headline that tends to catch my attention. The one from JPost didn't seem interesting to me.

[azurnoir]

6. well a tourist ad as the JPost headline read probably didn't interest you as much as yahoo's

which IMO overstated the case. However seeing as how this tourist ad has been corrected. no it doesn't much bother me at all

[shira]

13. It's not just a tourist ad, as the 2nd link in the OP shows. I'm quite certain...

...you don't have a problem with that either.

[azurnoir]

14. Then take it up with JPost because that's what their subtitle says n/t

[King_David]

8. Defending the indefensible again?

Just like thw West Bank is a gay Mecca according to some.


:eyes:

[azurnoir]

15. your own OP link states its a tourist ad and what are babbling on about Gay rights

that has not a wit to do with thread

[azurnoir]

16. are you auditioning for this? That could explain your rather bizarre comment

In new pinkwashing recruitment campaign, Israel offers free travel for propaganda services

The story of the floundering “Brand Israel” advertising campaign continues. An Israeli government ministry has established a propaganda website called Hasbara.gov.il – a Hebrew word often translated as “propaganda”. A notice was recently published on the site asking for volunteer “candidates eligible to conduct public diplomacy activities abroad”. The volunteers “will not be eligible for any remuneration” apart from “costs of travel, daily expenses and insurance”.

The advert is also the latest episode in Israel’s cynical “pinkwashing” strategy, which was powerfully criticised by American academic Sarah Schulman in the New York Times this week. The ministry’s advert says it is looking particularly for “minority members” and “representatives of the gay community” to argue Israel’s case abroad.

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/asa-winstanley/new-pinkwashing-recruitment-campaign-israel-offers-free-travel-propaganda

[King_David]

17. 'are you auditioning for this'

All Gays are the same.

:crazy:

[azurnoir]

19. ah no all Gays are not the same however this is a campaign using Gay Rights to 'rebrand' Israel

and it is campaign run by the Israeli government

[vminfla]

7. Not the first time

Re-writing history and maps to remove every vestige of Israel is the standard modus operandi. That it is the diplomatic mission is almost inconsequential. Pick up any arab textbook on geography and you will see the same rewriting of history.

[shaayecanaan]

9. The Israelis have done the exact same thing in their own tourism ads...

and quite recently, to boot:-

http://electronicintifada.net/blog/asa-winstanley/updated-israeli-campaign-attract-uk-tourists-wipes-palestine-and-syria-map#.Tt_xYFbEfTo

[azurnoir]

10. ah The Guardian refuse to run the ad which was scheduled for this and next weekend

[shaayecanaan]

11. No doubt there is some elaborate reason...

for why the Palestinian map is a grave and serious portend that the Arabs plan to throw the Jews into the sea, but the Israeli map is no big deal. I've heard just about everything on this discussion board.

[azurnoir]

12. especially when you consider that Israel has been cited previously in the UK for this same map

but someone most likely has an explanation

[King_David]

18. Golan was formally annexed.

;)

[azurnoir]

20. yes Israel claimed that in 1981 but I doubt other countries recognize that annexation

same with East Jerusalem supposedly Israel annexed that too but no one else seems to believe it

[shaayecanaan]

21. No it wasn't

While the Israeli public at large, and especially the law's critics, viewed it as an annexation, the law avoids the use of the word. Prime Minister Menahem Begin responded to Amnon Rubinstein's criticism by saying: "you use the word 'annexation', I do not use it"

You can view it as a de facto annexation but certainly not as a formal annexation.

Of course, UN Security Res 497 ensures that the whole exercise is null and void anyway:-

"1. Decides that the Israeli decision to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights is null and void and without international legal effect;"