HarperCollins, Antisemitic Mapmaker

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**Breotan**

Well, if you're going to step in in, you might as well use both feet.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/01/02/harpercollins-omits-israel-from-maps-for-mideast-schools-citing-local-preferences/

Terrence McCoy wrote:HarperCollins omits Israel from maps for Mideast schools, citing ‘local preferences’

Well, that didn’t go over well.

For months, publishing giant HarperCollins has been selling an atlas it says was “developed specifically for schools in the Middle East.” It trumpets the work as providing students an “in-depth coverage of the region and its issues.” Its stated goals include helping kids understand the “relationship between the social and physical environment, the region’s challenges [and] its socio-economic development.”

Nice goals. But there’s one problem: Israel is missing.

There’s Syria. There’s Jordan. There’s Gaza. But no mention of Israel. The story was first reported by a Catholic publication, the Tablet.

On Wednesday, HarperCollins was backtracking fast. “HarperCollins regrets the omission of the name Israel from their Collins Middle East Atlas,” HarperCollins UK said on its Facebook page. “This product has now been removed from sale in all territories and all remaining stock will be pulped. HarperCollins sincerely apologizes for this omission and for any offense it caused.”

It apparently caused quite a bit. On Amazon, the atlas has 39 reviews. Every reviewer gave it one star. [Breotan's edit: The number is 73 when this thread was created with three 5-star reviews that are obvious trolls]

“It’s incredibly sad and sickening how one of the world’s largest publishers has failed to recognize Israel,” one reviewer wrote, calling it a “travesty and international shame.” “Failing to recognize its existence is horrifying and it’s a shame that in 2014, such nonsense still goes on.”

How did this happen? Collins Bartholomew, a subsidiary of HarperCollins that specializes in maps, told the Tablet that it would have been “unacceptable” to include Israel in atlases intended for the Middle East. They had deleted Israel to satisfy “local preferences.”

Strangely, however, the West Bank is clearly marked on the map, but not Israel. Nobody can quite seem to grasp quite what HarperCollins was thinking. “The publication of this atlas will confirm Israel’s belief that there exists hostility toward their country from parts of the Arab world. It will not help to build up a spirit of trust leading to peaceful co-existence,” a British bishop named Declan Lang, who chairs a conference that first highlighted the omission, told the Tablet.

Others were less diplomatic. “What a piece of inaccurate garbage!” one reviewer said.

Link to Facebook page. Put on your hazmat suit before you go in. https://www.facebook.com/harpercollinsuk/posts/911442185546286

**H.B.M.C.**

Yeah, you don't just get to pick and choose what countries exist.

**djones520**

When forced ignorance helps you keep the masses under control... well you do get to.

**Me Like Burnaz**

So a business decided to sell a product to a certain market and to satisfy that market they omitted a certain nation. How is that different than American textbook manufacturers making science books that place Creationism and Intelligent Design as viable scientific theories to sell their products to a certain market? I don't see outrage over that?

Face it, the people who would want an atlas without an Israel are pretty much beyond any hope of being useful members of the international community anyhow. It's not like the next Bill Gates is going to come out of that mess.

**Dreadclaw69**

How can this be both an "omission", and also a decision because of "local preferences"

**JimOnMars**

Me Like Burnaz wrote:
How is that different than American textbook manufacturers making science books that place Creationism and Intelligent Design as viable scientific theories to sell their products to a certain market? I don't see outrage over that?

There's plenty of outrage against ID, but unfortunately few people who are against it have any political power.

In this case Harper Collins took a stab deep into the establishment religions of the United States, and no doubt fear a well funded and organized backlash. If congress were in session I'll bet there would be a line out the door of senators and congresspeople waiting to denounce Harper Collins...mostly from predictable quarters.

**Talizvar**

Eh, so they are guilty of one of two things:
1) The publisher decided to cater to a particular market and got called-out / too much outcry on that choice.
2) Focused so much on a given region / sect they made a HUGE oversight.

So, insensitive or stupid, which is it?

I lean toward stupid, that is typically the type of error we all make.

**JimOnMars**

I vote for stupid.

Fun fact: HarperCollins is owned by News Corporation, chaired by CEO Rupert Murdoch...I bet the president of HC got a looooooong trip to the woodshed for this little stunt.

**chaos0xomega**

“It’s incredibly sad and sickening how one of the world’s largest publishers has failed to recognize Palestine,” one reviewer wrote, calling it a “travesty and international shame.” “Failing to recognize its existence is horrifying and it’s a shame that in 2014, such nonsense still goes on.”

FTFY

**djones520**

chaos0xomega wrote:
“It’s incredibly sad and sickening how one of the world’s largest publishers has failed to recognize Palestine,” one reviewer wrote, calling it a “travesty and international shame.” “Failing to recognize its existence is horrifying and it’s a shame that in 2014, such nonsense still goes on.”

FTFY

Wait... what?

**JimOnMars**

chaos0xomega wrote:
“It’s incredibly sad and sickening how one of the world’s largest publishers has failed to recognize Palestine,” one reviewer wrote, calling it a “travesty and international shame.” “Failing to recognize its existence is horrifying and it’s a shame that in 2014, such nonsense still goes on.”

FTFY

No dice. the US has the veto in the Security Council, therefore Palestine is not a state. Harper Collins can't generate a map for a state with no borders.

**Grey Templar**

Indeed, although the real reason for Palestine not being a state is deeper than that. It has never existed historically, nor is there a distinct people group would would identify themselves as such. The only thing uniting the supposed "Palestinians" is a hatred for Israel, otherwise they'd be killing each other with just as much Gusto.

And the neighboring countries are just feeding the fire. Nobody there likes the Palestinians, they just hate Israel more.

**Me Like Burnaz**

Dreadclaw69 wrote:
How can this be both an "omission", and also a decision because of "local preferences"

Because lawyers write these apologies...

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Grey Templar wrote:
It has never existed historically, nor is there a distinct people group would would identify themselves as such.

Could they be the Canaanites that the Israelis slaughtered when they took the land? Since Joshua slew the males and enslaved the women and children their lines would be hard to follow.

Grey Templar wrote:
And the neighboring countries are just feeding the fire. Nobody there likes the Palestinians, they just hate Israel more.

Well, the enemy of my enemy is a good thing to soak up bullets....

**Peregrine**

Me Like Burnaz wrote:
So a business decided to sell a product to a certain market and to satisfy that market they omitted a certain nation. How is that different than American textbook manufacturers making science books that place Creationism and Intelligent Design as viable scientific theories to sell their products to a certain market? I don't see outrage over that?

The best part of this is that there's a huge overlap between the people who think putting creationism and blatant revisionist history into US textbooks is a great idea and the people who are outraged that a publisher would do the same kind of thing by removing Israel from the map.

**LordofHats**

I would have thought they'd at least label it as "Region of Palestine." Cause you know that's geographically correct all things said and done, but no. They didn't even put that there. Normally I'd say 'meh w/e' but they put Gaza on there. How do you put Gaza on there and nothing else XD

**AlmightyWalrus**

You do realize that being against Israel is not synonymous with anti-Semitism, yes?

**whembly**

AlmightyWalrus wrote:
You do realize that being against Israel is not synonymous with anti-Semitism, yes?

Of couse...

But, it's pretty fething hard to ignore "the state" of modern Israel... no?

**AlmightyWalrus**

whembly wrote:
AlmightyWalrus wrote:
You do realize that being against Israel is not synonymous with anti-Semitism, yes?

Of couse...

But, it's pretty fething hard to ignore "the state" of modern Israel... no?

Oh I agree that it's stupid, but it's not "anti-Semitic", Israel is not synonymous with Jews, no matter how much they want to be.

**Ahtman**

This makes me think of an episode of The West Wing in which the President is gifted a map from the 1800s of the Middle East. Being that there was no such thing as Israel at the time it is not on the map. Everyone spends the episode telling him he can't put the map up because there is no Israel in it, even if it didn't exist yet. It isn't the same issue but it still reminds me of that episode.

**Relapse**

Peregrine wrote:
Me Like Burnaz wrote:
So a business decided to sell a product to a certain market and to satisfy that market they omitted a certain nation. How is that different than American textbook manufacturers making science books that place Creationism and Intelligent Design as viable scientific theories to sell their products to a certain market? I don't see outrage over that?

The best part of this is that there's a huge overlap between the people who think putting creationism and blatant revisionist history into US textbooks is a great idea and the people who are outraged that a publisher would do the same kind of thing by removing Israel from the map.

Do the textbooks that put forward creation theory totally omit any mention of evolution? How much space does creation theory take compared to evolution? Are these books used in an accredited school?

**Jihadin**

I'm upset that there was no "There be dragons here"

**Breotan**

AlmightyWalrus wrote:
whembly wrote:
AlmightyWalrus wrote:
You do realize that being against Israel is not synonymous with anti-Semitism, yes?

Of couse...

But, it's pretty fething hard to ignore "the state" of modern Israel... no?

Oh I agree that it's stupid, but it's not "anti-Semitic", Israel is not synonymous with Jews, no matter how much they want to be.

Arabs deny the existence of Israel because it is Jewish not because it is Israeli.

**AlmightyWalrus**

Breotan wrote:
AlmightyWalrus wrote:
whembly wrote:
AlmightyWalrus wrote:
You do realize that being against Israel is not synonymous with anti-Semitism, yes?

Of couse...

But, it's pretty fething hard to ignore "the state" of modern Israel... no?

Oh I agree that it's stupid, but it's not "anti-Semitic", Israel is not synonymous with Jews, no matter how much they want to be.

Arabs deny the existence of Israel because it is Jewish not because it is Israeli.

They sure do. Why does that matter in this case?

**dogma**

Breotan wrote:

Arabs deny the existence of Israel because it is Jewish not because it is Israeli.

By "Arabs" did you mean "Muslims"? Because it is possible to be Arab and not Muslim.

Also there is way more to the denial of Israeli statehood than religion.

**Hordini**

dogma wrote:
Breotan wrote:

Arabs deny the existence of Israel because it is Jewish not because it is Israeli.

By "Arabs" did you mean "Muslims"? Because it is possible to be Arab and not Muslim.

Also there is way more to the denial of Israeli statehood than religion.

Yeah. It's even possible to be Arab and Jewish, or Arab and Christian.

**Torga_DW**

Wow. I hope harper collins don't write history books, or there's another potential controversy waiting to happen.

**Me Like Burnaz**

Peregrine wrote:
The best part of this is that there's a huge overlap between the people who think putting creationism and blatant revisionist history into US textbooks is a great idea and the people who are outraged that a publisher would do the same kind of thing by removing Israel from the map.

Exactly my point in comparing the two. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Relapse wrote:
Do the textbooks that put forward creation theory totally omit any mention of evolution? How much space does creation theory take compared to evolution? Are these books used in an accredited school?

The textbooks are sold to government funded schools and used in many "bible belt" schools. While it is true they don't totally omit the topic of evolution the mere fact that such an abomination as ID can be taught to innocent kids is repugnant to the very concept of science. ID does not stand up as a viable theory. It would be like giving Flat Earth theory equal time in a Geography text book or Alchemy equal time in a Chemistry text book.

Omitting the name of one nation on a map so you can sell them to religidiots in the Middle East is a minor offense in comparison. We don't expect much in the line of scientific intellectuals to come from a region desperately clinging to the 16th century. However we do hope that the next generation of American children will be able to compete in a global market, how can they do that when the very fundamentals of modern science are undermined with this religidiot sheep excrement?

**Relapse**

Me Like Burnaz wrote:
Peregrine wrote:
The best part of this is that there's a huge overlap between the people who think putting creationism and blatant revisionist history into US textbooks is a great idea and the people who are outraged that a publisher would do the same kind of thing by removing Israel from the map.

Exactly my point in comparing the two. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Relapse wrote:
Do the textbooks that put forward creation theory totally omit any mention of evolution? How much space does creation theory take compared to evolution? Are these books used in an accredited school?

The textbooks are sold to government funded schools and used in many "bible belt" schools. While it is true they don't totally omit the topic of evolution the mere fact that such an abomination as ID can be taught to innocent kids is repugnant to the very concept of science. ID does not stand up as a viable theory. It would be like giving Flat Earth theory equal time in a Geography text book or Alchemy equal time in a Chemistry text book.

Omitting the name of one nation on a map so you can sell them to religidiots in the Middle East is a minor offense in comparison. We don't expect much in the line of scientific intellectuals to come from a region desperately clinging to the 16th century. However we do hope that the next generation of American children will be able to compete in a global market, how can they do that when the very fundamentals of modern science are undermined with this religidiot sheep excrement?

Do you have an example of such a book as is used in an accredited school?

**Me Like Burnaz**

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/01/creationism_in_texas_public_schools_undermining_the_charter_movement.html

http://www.evolutionnews.org/2013/05/introducing_a_n072321.html

Charter schools are public schools that are accredited. The second link is so you can read more about these lunatics and their agenda.

**Relapse**

I did a little bit of googling and came up with this gem from Bob Jones University and am a bit speechless. I am a Christian, but this...

http://www.11points.com/Books/11_Eye-Opening_Highlights_From_a_Creationist_Science_Textbook

Happily, I don't believe that this is the type of book being used in public schools.