LONDON - The Board of Deputies of British Jews said on Monday that it found it “deeply disturbing” at this crucial period in the peace process that Israel’s very existence is being denied in
a “Travel Palestine” advert in this month’s
National Geographic magazine. The advertisement appears to blot out the existence of the
State of Israel.
“This is not merely an affront to International Law but seems to be a step back to the darkest days of rejectionism and confrontation,” it said.
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Geographic' magazine to start Arabic edition“The Board of Deputies, like all people and institutions of goodwill, supports the efforts to achieve a lasting peace through a two state solution, recognizing the aspirations of all peoples in the region.
“In the very strongest terms we call upon the ASA to take immediate
action to correct this advertisement’s dangerous distortion of the
facts," a statement stressed.
Britain’s advertising regulator launched an investigation following
a barrage of complaints the advert. The Advertising Standards Authority
(ASA), the UK’s
independent regulator of advertising across all media, told
The Jerusalem Post
on Friday that in the last few days it had received 60 complaints about
the
advert – published by the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and
Antiquities, “the
official website for tourism in Palestine” – which appeared in National
Geographic’s Traveller magazine.
“I can confirm that the ASA
has received
60 complaints about the Travel Palestine ad that appeared in the
National
Geographic magazine,” an ASA spokesman told the Post. “I can also
confirm that
the ASA has launched a formal investigation into the ad.”
According
to
the ad, “Palestine lies between the Mediterranean coast and Jordan
River, at the
crossroads between Africa and Middle East.”
“If you consult the
map of
this region you will see that this is like describing Portugal as lying
between
the Mediterranean and Atlantic Ocean,” said London lawyer David Lewis in
a
letter to the ASA. “At the very least it implies that ‘Palestine’ has a
Mediterranean coastline; but while this is true as regards to Gaza, that
territory is not within the de facto jurisdiction of the Palestinian
Authority.
“More seriously, it implies that Palestine occupies
the whole
or the bulk of the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan,
ignoring
the existence of Israel.”