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.

“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.

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Last year, a similar error on the interactive maps aboard a JetBlue flight caused a public outcry.

By JNS

Air Canada is working to correct an in-flight map which replaced the State of Israel with “Palestinian territories.”

The error was first noticed by a passenger on a recent flight from Vancouver to Montreal.

“Air Canada has been made aware of a display issue with the interactive map on the IFE systems of its B737 aircraft,” the airline said in response to an image of the erroneous map posted to X on Monday.

“The issue has affected other carriers using the same system and we are working with the third-party provider on a remedy,” added the statement.

Air Canada is set to resume flights to Israel in June, after suspending them due to the security situation in the country.

Last year, a similar error on the interactive maps aboard a JetBlue flight caused a public outcry. The U.S. carrier said the map had been provided by a third-party company and decided “after a careful review” to switch to a new vendor.

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Politicians from the area expressed concerns over the map’s presence in the school.

By Charles Hilu, The Washington Free Beacon

A public school in New York City is receiving criticism after a map in one of its classrooms omitted the existence of Israel.

Brooklyn’s PS 261 school said it took down the colorful map titled, “Arab World,” in which the area that sits between Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria—where the Jewish state, as well as Gaza and the West Bank, lies—is labeled “Palestine,” after the Free Press on Thursday reported its display in a classroom there.

Qatar Foundation International, owned by the Qatari government, in April posted a picture of the map on X, then known as Twitter. The map was displayed in an “Arab Culture Arts” classroom in the school where children from pre-K to fifth grade learn as part of a program that the organization funds, the now-deleted post said.

The Free Press asked the city’s Department of Education whether the map remained up in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. Spokesman Nathaniel Styer responded by asking, “Why would it not be?” and added that it was a “map of countries that speak Arabic.” After the outlet published the story, however, Styer gave an update on the map’s status.

“We are committed to fostering a welcoming environment here at [New York City Public Schools] that supports all cultures and communities,” Styer told the Free Press. “As soon as we were made aware of concerns regarding the map it was removed.”

Tova Plaut, an instructional coordinator in New York for classrooms that teach students from pre-K to fifth grade, told the outlet the map could “embed implicit bias” in children against Israel.

“What it does is it creates this inner instinctive knowledge that they internalize that this land belongs to the Arab world, that it does not belong to anyone else,” she said. “When you embed something when children are young it becomes a belief, and belief is much harder to change than knowledge.”

Politicians from the area expressed concerns over the map’s presence in the school.

“I am deeply concerned about this issue and we are working to determine why this map is on display, if the map was approved by the [Department of Education], and whether the exclusion of Israel is a part of the class’s curriculum,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D., N.Y.), whose district contains the school, told the New York Post.

This is not the first time a school in the Big Apple has been in the news for events relating to Israel’s war on Hamas. Students in November rioted in the hallway of Queens’s Hillcrest High School, damaging school property in the process, after they learned that a Jewish teacher had posted about her attendance at a pro-Israel rally. That teacher hid inside a locked office during the demonstration.

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