CNN Uses Map that Replaces ‘Israel’ with ‘Palestina’

Mistake or malice? CNN replaced Israel with “Palestine,” but was forced to fix the error after public protest.  

 

CNN has added another anti-Israel bias incident to a constantly growing list of such debacles by prominent media outlets.

CNN Money published an article on Tuesday focusing on “Beyond ISIS: 2016’s scariest geopolitical hot spots.”

When displaying a map of the Middle East, CNN used a map in which Israel was replaced with “Palestina,” a Spanish or Portuguese translation of Palestine, a non-existing state. The image was taken from Getty Images’ iStock and is not a creation of CNN’s graphics team.

“Clearly, however, somebody at CNN selected this image out of all the potential images that could have been chosen to illustrate the Middle East,” Honest Reporting, a media watchdog which publicized the offensive error, stated on Wednesday.

“Whether it was an oversight or something more sinister, CNN’s illustration of the Middle East without Israel is completely unacceptable,” Honest Reporting Managing Editor Simon Plosker added. “At a time when the state’s very legitimacy is being called into question by vicious anti-Israel extremists, any message that Israel does not belong in the Middle East plays into this false narrative and feeds those like the Iranian ayatollahs who wish to see Israel erased from the map.”

“How many times can CNN keep making these shoddy errors before the network takes remedial action to address its Israel problem?” Plosker asked. “We fully expect CNN to replace this inaccurate map as quickly as possible.”

Following action taken by Honest Reporting and complaints to CNN by many of their subscribers, CNN removed the map in question and replaced it with an image of the aftermath of a Syrian airstrike in Aleppo.

“While we question how the error occurred at all, nonetheless we commend CNN for taking prompt action,” Honest Reporting said after the erroneous image was replaced.

Israel has been “wiped of the map” on several occasions by various bodies in the past. Swift and strong public responses by pro-Israel organizations have forced them to “correct” their “errors.”

By: Max Gelber, United with Israel