Palestinian website criticised for wiping Israel off the map
A WEBSITE has been admonished for apparently wiping the state of Israel off the map.
The British 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.
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.
- Alex Diaz
