LONDON – Britain’s advertising regulator has launched an investigation following
a barrage of complaints over a “Travel Palestine” advert in this month’s
National Geographic magazine which appears to blot out the existence of the
State of Israel.
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.
RELATED:'National Geographic' magazine to start Arabic edition“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.”
London blogger Richard Millet said the notion
that Palestine lies between the Mediterranean and Jordan is racist.
“This
echoes the racist chant of “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free”
sung by anti-Israel activists. It is a racist statement,” he said.
The ad
also states that “Palestine is a land rich in history with a tradition of
hospitality.
From the famous cities of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron,
Jericho, Nablus and Gaza, the Palestinian people welcome you to visit this holy
land.”
The Zionist Federation of the UK said the advert was misleading as
it gives the “false impression” that Palestine is a country; that Jerusalem is
part of Palestine, and that Palestine extends from the Mediterranean to the
Jordan.
“The ad would mislead tourists, since on traveling to territory
controlled by the Palestinian Authority, they would not find the sites and
facilities which the advertisement promotes,” the ZF said.
“The ad
breaches [advertising] code clause 7.1 in that it misleads by inaccuracy,
ambiguity, exaggeration, omission or otherwise,” said lawyer Nigel Miller, a
partner at London law firm Fox Williams.
In a letter to the ASA, Miller
said the ad refers to Jerusalem in the same context as other cities in the West
Bank.
“It implies that Jerusalem is in Palestine. In fact, Jerusalem is
the capital of the State of Israel. East Jerusalem is also under Israeli
governance; while east Jerusalem may presently be disputed territory, it cannot
be said to be part of “Palestine,” Miller said.
In a letter to the ASA,
London barrister Jonathan Turner said that the ad is misleading as it implies
that a State of Palestine includes Hebron.
“In accordance with the
Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement (Oslo 2 Accord) and the Wye River
Memorandum, a significant part of Hebron remains in Area C under full Israeli
control and is not readily accessible to tourists from areas controlled by the
Palestinian Authority,” he said.
Miller also said that the ad implies
that a tourist can visit Gaza as well as cities in the West Bank during the same
visit.
“The ad promotes the city of Gaza, but fails to mention that the
Palestinian territories comprise two non-contiguous areas, one the West Bank and
the other Gaza, and that it would be very difficult if not impossible for a
tourist to travel between the two areas, or to get into Gaza either via Israel
or Egypt,” he said.
Last April, the ASA ruled that an Israel Government
Tourist Office (IGTO) advertisement with a picture of the Western Wall with the
Dome of the Rock in the background was held to have breached its guidelines on
truthfulness as it “misleadingly implied” that east Jerusalem was part of
Israel, resulting in false advertising.
“It should be noted that the
ruling in case 114921 [the IGTO case] objected to the implication that East
Jerusalem was in Israel, even though it is under full Israeli control,” Turner
said in his letter to the ASA last week.
“On the same basis, objection
should be taken to the implication that Bethlehem, Jericho and Nablus are in
Palestine even though they are under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
Any other ruling would be inconsistent, discriminatory and biased.”