A HarperCollins atlas designed for students at English-speaking schools in the Middle East published in May 2014 has apparently scrubbed Israel from the region. According to the similarly-named U.K. Catholic newspaper The Tablet, the maps in Collins Primary Geography Atlas for the Middle East “depict Jordan and Syria extending all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.”
Collins Bartholomew, the subsidiary of HarperCollins that specialises in maps, told The Tablet that including Israel would have been “unacceptable” to their customers in the Gulf and the amendment incorporated “local preferences”.
According to HarperCollins’ U.K. website, “The atlas has been developed specifically for schools in the Middle East. It has been designed to stimulate and inspire students with its syllabus specific content.”
As JTA points out, the West Bank is “clearly labeled” on the maps. Gaza is marked as well.
A September 2014 review of the atlas on Amazon called it “deceiving and innacurate,” pointing out that Israel was missing.
It’s not the first time the county has been left off a map designed for young readers. Scholastic Inc. stopped shipments of a book in a popular Italian children’s series after a mother discovered that Israel had been left off an illustration in the book. They quickly revised the map and resumed shipments.
Update: HarperCollins announced they were pulling the atlas: “This product has now been removed from sale in all territories and all remaining stock will be pulped.”
HarperCollins Leaves Israel off Atlas Designed for Middle East Students – Tablet Magazine
Lower level employees, however, thought they did the right thing.
Collins Bartholomew told The Tablet that putting Israel on the map would have been “unacceptable” in the Middle East and that “local preferences” had to be respected.
He isn’t imaging those local preferences. I’ve seen plenty of Arab maps that don’t include Israel. Sometimes it’s labeled as Palestine.
Sometimes it’s a blank space. Sometimes it’s there and labeled correctly. It depends on the map and, to an extent, which country produced it. Some Arab nations are less hung up on this than others.
Companies that want to sell products to customers really do need to think about what would and would not be acceptable or they won’t turn a profit. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just basic business.
But the map HarperCollins produced is a lie. Right there on its atlas cover are the words, “Learn with maps” in English. But kids can’t learn real geography from fake maps. Setting aside the politics of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the product fails to live up to its own description.
Erasing Israel From the Map | World Affairs Journal
learn with harper collins :lol:
