The American publisher HarperCollins recently produced an atlas intended for English-speaking students in the Middle East that does not show Israel. Although the atlas has since been withdrawn, Michael J. Totten excoriates apologists for the publishing house who have defended the work on the grounds that it was simply respecting local sensitivities. Totten writes:
People who hate a country so intensely that they can’t bear to see its existence on maps have a serious problem. I detest North Korea and wish it didn’t exist. So much better if it were joined to democratic South Korea like East Germany merged with the west after the fall of the Berlin Wall. But for God’s sake, I don’t require the maps in my house to show North Korea as blank. If I did, I’d have a problem and I’d need some help.
There isn’t much Westerners can do to change reactionary attitudes on the other side of the planet, and publishers aren’t generally in the political-emotional therapy business, but pandering to a denial of reality only perpetuates it. If Middle Eastern customers will only buy a map if it lies, they can make their own damn maps. And if HarperCollins, or any other publishing company, actually wants kids over there to “Learn with maps” as it says, then the local delusional bubble needs to be punctured.
Read more on World Affairs Journal: http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/michael-j-totten/erasing-israel-map