UK Jewish group slams New Zealand government for map erasing Israel

The map labeled Israel “Palestine,” and it called East Jerusalem its “designated capital.”

By Benjamin Kerstein, The Algemeiner

A leading U.K. Jewish organization expressed shock on Wednesday that a map on an official New Zealand government website erased the State of Israel.

The map appeared on the website of Immigration New Zealand, which is a government agency.

The map labeled Israel “Palestine” and called East Jerusalem its “designated capital.”

The site, intended for possible Palestinian immigrants to New Zealand, also stated “2017 marks 50 years of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories and 10 years of its blockade on the Gaza Strip.”

Palestinians, it said, were suffering a “protracted crisis … emanating from recurrent violations of International Law.”

The area designated “Palestine” included the Gaza Strip but, strangely, not the West Bank.

Board of Deputies of British Jews Senior Vice President Sheila Gewolb commented on the scandal, saying, “I am deeply concerned by the fact that Immigration New Zealand, an official government website, released a fact sheet with a map of the Middle East, which showed ‘Palestine’ instead of Israel.”

“The Immigration Ministry needs to apologize for the offending image and confirm that it does not reflect the Government’s policy,” she added.