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Encyclopedia Britannica replaces Israel with Palestine

Iconic English-language encyclopedia under fire for erasing Israel from map, replacing it with Palestine.

By World Israel News Staff

The publishers of the longest-running English-language encyclopedia came under fire recently after they published a map of the Middle East that replaced the State of Israel with “Palestine” and used the name in reference to the contemporary Middle East, using the present tense.

The offending map was uploaded to an entry on “Palestine” under the Encyclopedia Britannica’s children’s site, Britannica Kids.

The entry describes “Palestine” as a “region in the Middle East” that “lies between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.”

A map of the region made no distinction between the Palestinian Authority and areas claimed by the PA in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip, with the part of the Levant historically referred to as “Canaan,” or “Palestine.”

Israel was not displayed on the map, nor was any explanation given to distinguish between the historic use of the term “Palestine,” as an alternative term of Roman origin for the Land of Israel/Canaan, and the contemporary Palestinian Authority.

The pro-Israel advocacy group UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) penned a letter to the encyclopedia’s publishers, noting a consistent pattern across multiple entries in Britannica Kids ” in which Israel is effectively erased from history — both geographically and historically — through the anachronistic and politicized use of terminology,” the group said.

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“UKLFI highlighted that several Britannica Kids entries describe the entire area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as ‘Palestine’, including in the present tense. In doing so, the material omits the existence of the State of Israel altogether.”

UKLFI warned that the encyclopedia’s handling of the subject echoed anti-Israeli slogans, including “From the river to the sea,” which call for Israel’s destruction.

Following UKLFI’s complaint and inquiries from the Telegraph newspaper, the map included under the entry for “Palestine” was removed, and the definition of Palestine was amended to note the distinction between the contemporary Palestinian Authority and the use of the term “Palestine” as a synonym for Canaan.