Where’s Israel?  (adapted from the Washington Post and the American Thinker)

The book publisher HarperCollins UK learned a valuable lesson on the dangers of trying to appease in the modern age of instant communications.  The company literally wiped Israel off the map by omitting Israel on their world atlas because many Muslim nations felt it was “unacceptable” to include it.   Follow : @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook

There’s Syria. There’s Jordan. There’s Gaza. But no mention of Israel. 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.

“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 and what is next? 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.  After many news sites and blogs publicized this atrocity, the powerful International Zionist/Jewish Conspiracy/Lobby and their friends and allies angrily scolded them, vowing never to buy their books or other products, HarperCollins quickly tossed off a laughable apology while promising to pulp the remaining maps.

HarperCollins regrets the omission of the name Israel from their Collins Middle East Atlas. This product has now been removed from sale in all territories and all remaining stock will be pulped. HarperCollins sincerely apologises for this omission and for any offence caused.

No, they didn’t demand the return of the error-filled maps or that they too be pulped.  Of course, the biased recipients who paid for them and now own them are quite happy with their distorted maps.  And so the easily offended countries will continue using them, as is their right.

Kyle Good, a senior vice president for corporate communications at Scholastic, told The Times of Israel in an email that her company would stop selling the book until the error was amended in the book’s next edition.

“The President of Trade Publishing who was on a plane yesterday returning from Europe has confirmed for me this morning that we are stopping shipments on this title, making the correction and going to reprint. We regret the error[.]”

Scholastic’s Kyle Good’s official response blandly stated:

As you have probably heard, Thea Stilton and the Blue Scarab Hunt, a title in the Geronimo Stilton series, published by Scholastic,  includes a map that inadvertently omits Israel. Scholastic is immediately stopping shipment on this title, revising the map, and going back to reprint. We regret the omission which was in the original version of the book published in Italy and was translated by our company for English language distribution.

Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter.

As with the case of HarperCollins, Scholastic’s omission was not the result of sloppy editing.  It was quite advertent, quite deliberate whether in the original Italian version or in the translation.  Only when pressed did they change.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/01/backlash_againsdt_ommitting_israel_from_map.html#ixzz3Nssevxy4
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