A small Czech publisher has found itself embroiled in an international controversy, after one of its atlases listed Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
The Czech newspaper Mlada fronta Dnes reported that the Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic, Khaled al-Atrash, had complained to the foreign ministry after local Palestinians showed him the atlas, which listed Jerusalem as the capital multiple times the text and on maps.
Atrash’s complaint was referred to the Czech education ministry, which said it would “resolutely demand a change of the given data”.
Map and travel guide publisher Shocart has been told by the ministry to replace Jerusalem with Tel Aviv as the capital or the atlas would no longer be listed as a certified book on the Czech school curriculum. In the Czech Republic, schools receive grants to buy books on the certified list.
Czech foreign ministry spokeswoman Irena Valentova told Mlada fronta Dnes that the Czech Republic did not consider East Jerusalem a part of the state of Israel.
“The EU member countries, including the Czech Republic, view Jerusalem as the future capital of both states, ie the State of Israel and the future State of Palestine,” Valentova said.
Atrash praised the decision. “The atlas says something that is unacceptable not only for the Palestinians but also according to international law and the official positions of the EU, including the Czech Republic,” he said.
In a statement to the Jewish News Service, the Israeli foreign ministry said it was in touch with Prague in an attempt to reverse the decision.
“This is a reprehensible decision. Palestinian incitement knows no bounds, it is no longer satisfied with poisoning the minds of Palestinian youth – now it wants to spread lies and misinformation among Czech youth as well,” the statement reads.
Shocart is working on updating the books to list the country’s diplomatic and financial centre, Tel Aviv, as Israel’s capital and, according to an education ministry statement, will finish the work by the start of 2017. A manager at Shocart described the listing of Jerusalem as a mistake that was overlooked.
In reply to complaints on their Facebook page, the publisher wrote: “You’re all crying on a wrong grave... shout at EU and UN representatives, not a local map publisher who is just forced to obey its superiors - the Ministry of Education / Ministry of Foreign Affairs etc.”
It is not the first time a children’s book has been embroiled in controversy over Israel – in 2014, Collins Bartholomew, a subsidiary of HarperCollins, omitted Israel from maps distributed to English-speaking schools in the Middle East, saying it matched “local preferences”. The maps were pulped. In 2013, Scholastic came under fire for erasing Israel from a map in Thea Stilton and the Blue Scarab Hunt, an error corrected in later editions of the children’s book.
