Discovery Channel and Medical Journal Maps Erase Israel

TEL AVIV – In yet another instance of Israel being wiped from the map, a documentary on the Discovery Channel features a graphic of the Middle East in which Jordan has expanded its borders to encompass the entire area of Israel.

The gaffe, exposed by media monitor HonestReporting.com, extends to Lebanon, which is also erased from the map. The documentary, called “North Korea is Burning,” is part of a series broadcast on the Discovery network’s Science Channel.

HonestReporting’s Managing Editor Simon Plosker commented, “Whether the result of deliberate malice or sheer incompetence, the result is the same: Israel has been erased from the map. The Discovery Channel needs to take responsibility for what is a serious error and include a clarification and correction on any future reruns.”

The media watchdog also reported on the erasure of Israel in a newly published medical journal.

The 2016 Bulletin of the Health Professions Council of South Africa includes a world map that replaced Israel with the label “Palestine.”

This is just the latest in a series of similar instances of geographical revisionism, with recent offenders including National Public Radio (NPR) – which last month published a map that replaced “Israel” with “Palestine” – and CNN, guilty of the same infraction last November.

On both occasions, the maps were corrected following complaints sent to CNN and NPR.

HonestReporting.com’s Daniel Pomerantz noted, “One can’t help but wonder why so many journalists seem capable of labeling the rest of the world and its other 195 countries correctly, yet continue making this ‘mistake’ when it comes to Israel.”