Biggest children’s book publisher erases Israel from map

Arab textbooks are not the only ones erasing Israel from their maps. Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher of children’s books, has also eliminated the Jewish state in a book.

“Thea Stilton and the Blue Scarab Hunt,” part of the popular Geronimo Stilton children’s series translated from Italian and published by Scholastic in 2012, tells the story of a group of investigative journalists involved in a treasure hunt in Egypt.

The story commences with a map of modern Egypt and its neighboring countries. While Sudan, Libya and Saudi Arabia appear clearly on the map, the territory of Israel is completely covered by Jordan, painted red. A line indicating the Israeli border with the Sinai Peninsula does appear in the book.

Adina Golombek, a Jerusalem resident who emigrated to Israel from Canada last year, said she was shocked to discover Israel’s absence while reading the book with her 7-year-old son.

“I wanted to show my son where we lived in the Middle East, but it didn’t say Israel on the map; instead it said Jordan,” Golombek told The Times of Israel. “I showed him the problem and drew in the border of where Israel is today.”

Founded in Pennsylvania in 1920, Scholastic has grown to become the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books through its book clubs, teaching resources and popular book fairs held inside many North American schools. The company has exclusive publishing rights for the Harry Potter series in the United States.


The cover of the ‘Thea Stilton and the Blue Scarab Hunt’

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,” Good wrote.

A recent study carried out by Israeli and Palestinian researchers found that 96 percent of Palestinian school textbooks did not mention Israel by name in their maps. Similarly, 87 percent of Israeli school textbooks did not designate the Palestinian Territories by name.

Credit to The Times of Israel

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Somalia cyclone: 140 confirmed dead in Puntland

A cyclone that hit Somalia's north-eastern Puntland region at the weekend is known to have killed 140 people, and the number could rise to 300, a government minister has said.

The central government has declared a state of emergency in the region, and has appealed for international aid.

Thousands of livestock have also died and hundreds of homes have been destroyed by the cyclone, known as 03A.

The cyclone has subsided, but officials say heavy rains are still expected.

Puntland is a semi-autonomous region within Somalia and a large part of its population relies on livestock herding and fishing.

'Medicines needed'

The tropical cyclone swept through the Eyl, Beyla, Dangorayo and Hafun districts along the east coast and across to Alula on the tip of the Horn of Africa.

"So far we have confirmed the storm killed 140 people. We are afraid the death toll may reach 300 because many people are still missing," Puntland's Interior Minister Abdullahi Ahmed told Reuters news agency.

A government statement said Puntland's security forces had failed to transport 60 tonnes of aid to affected communities because heavy flooding had made many dirt roads to the worst-affected areas impassable.

"The storm has destroyed entire villages, homes, buildings and boats," the statement added.

Makeshift shelters had been built to accommodate displaced people, it said.

The government has appealed to international aid agencies to help with air-drops of relief supplies, including clean water, non-perishable food, tents, blankets and medicines.

Ten doctors and two ambulances were attending to people in need of medical treatment, the statement said.

On Tuesday, Somalia's government pledged $1m (£628,000) to help communities devastated by the cyclone.

The central government "shared the pain" of communities, Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon said.

BBC