British airline apologizes for deleting Israel from map

[oberliner]

British airline BMI apologized Thursday for deleting Israel from an electronic map that appears on its flights.

Army Radio reported earlier that BMI's London-Tel Aviv flights, Israel and most of its cities weren't marked in order to avoid angering Muslim passengers. Only Haifa was identified - by its Arab name, Khefa.

In its apology, BMI said the plane bearing the map was acquired from a now-defunct airline that flew to several Arab countries in the Middle East, and the map highlighted locations including the Muslim holy city of Mecca.

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1082064.html

[Howardx]

1. oh my god!

bmi wants israel erased from the map! time to bomb their headquarters!


this is really in the "who gives a shit" catagory.

[oberliner]

2. Well so far it's gotten more responses than my posts in LBN about civilians dying in Sri Lanka

What that means I have no idea!

[Howardx]

3. i havent seen those

i'll check em out now.

im not commenting on your posting the article so much as wondering why a mistake in map printing would make the papers.

[Sezu]

4. I doubt anyone here would expect YOU to

"get it," given your record

[Donald Ian Rankin]

5. It means everyone agrees about citizens dying in Sri Lanka.

What attracts DUers like flies to dead meat is the prospect of a fight.

Everyone agrees that citizens dying in Sri Lanka is A Bad Thing, but there aren't really any Sinhalese partizans for pro-tiger partisans to argue with or vice versa, so no-one bothers posting.

What makes I/P boil is that it, along with the gungeon, R/T and the like is an issue DUers disagree with other DUers about.

http://xkcd.com/386/

[oberliner]

7. What do they agree about? It seems pretty complex to me

Between what the government is saying and what the Tamil Tigers are saying - seems like a fight - with more than a few paralells to the I/P conflict except without the interest here for some reason.

There are pro-Tamil protests going on in DC, London, and elsewhere around the world so it is somewhat surprising that those voices (or opposite ones) are not really making their way to this board.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

10. That it is a Bad Thing TM, which is all most of us know about it.

But if I start a thread claiming that the deaths are all the fault of the Sri Lankan government or all the fault of the Tamil Tigers, I'm unlikely to start a fight.

And, slightly less cynically, there aren't dozens of older threads rehashing the issue from all sides, enabling me to learn about it, which means all I have to rely on are newspaper reports. And I think it is far easier to form an informed opinion on a controversial subject from two lots of partisans than it is from one source trying to be impartial - that's the reason we have prosecution and defence lawyers rather than impartial investigators.

[oberliner]

11. Let me clarify what I am asking

You are saying that all most of us know about the conflict in Sri Lanka is that it is a bad thing.

This is in contrast to the I/P conflict which people here not only seem to know quite a bit about but also hold strong and passionate opinions and/or outrage regarding certain elements of the conflict.

This is the discrepancy that is puzzling to me.

[Violet_Crumble]

16. I don't post in LBN, so I'll ask you here...

One thing yr right about is that there's quite a few parallels between the I/P conflict and what's happening in Sri Lanka. But there's also some marked differences between the two conflicts. Anyway, I'd like to know what yr views are on the conflict in Sri Lanka, what you think of the Sri Lankan government and also the Tamil Tigers...

[oberliner]

18. I am still trying to sort it all out

If you can suggest a site or a book or an author who you feel does a good job of breaking down the conflict I would greatly appreciate it.

Why don't you post on LBN?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

19. I see one big difference between the two at least:

If things go on the way they are doing, it looks like the Sri Lankan government will wipe out the Tamil Tigers, and "win".

I'm not sure if that's a good thing - it may bring peace - or a bad one - in may usher in an era of increased repression of the Tamils and mistreatment of their civilians, and for all I know to the contrary the goals of the LTTE may have been legitimate ones - but it means that the parallels with the I/P conflict are less close than they would otherwise be (although there are still plenty to be drawn).

[Donald Ian Rankin]

20. I can see several possible reasons.

:-The "feedback loop" argument - attention paid to a conflict attracts more attention, and so on. I think there's probably a large random element in which causes become causes celebre, in the same way as there is with celebrity child abuse victims.

:-The I/P conflict is very recognisably between first world "People Like Us (TM)" and third world "People Not Like Us (TM)". That touches a lot of nerves, on both sides. A lot of Westerners "identify" with the Israelis, which makes some feel guilty and hence pro-Palestinian, and others feel threatened and hence pro-Israeli; fewer Westerners identify with one side or the other in the Sri Lankan conflict. I suspect this may be the single most important reason.

:-Israel receives considerable support from the US, making it arguably more newsworthy.

:-The I/P conflict is a major international flashpoint; as far as I know the Sri Lankan conflict is unlikely to have consequences far beyond its own borders.

[azurnoir]

6. So it was not BMI's map?

and further more

BMI says the airline asked for the map to be removed once it took over the planes, but there had been a technical mistake.

If indeed this mistake is so offensive perhaps the arrangement with BMI should be canceled, but it is interesting to note that is not happening

Slow news day?

[oberliner]

8. What is the map identified Zimbabwe as Rhodesia?

And Harare as Salisbury - would that not ruffle a few feathers?

[azurnoir]

9. Would that be newsworthy?

I think the age of the plane or the map would be more of a question

[oberliner]

12. I think it is odd that certain airlines fly planes that do not acknowledge Israel as a country

The implication of this article is that their are airlines that serve the Arab world that do not identify Israel as a country and identify one city located therein under a different name.

[Violet_Crumble]

13. Then you should think El-al's map of Israel is rather odd...

Seeing as how it's showing 'Judea' and 'Samaria' as part of Israel....

http://www.elal.co.il/ELAL/English/HidePages/En_Map_of_Israel

[oberliner]

14. What country are they a part of?

As of right now, they are not part of any country but are occupied by Israel.

If an independent Palestinian state was established and El Al did not acknowledge its existence on their maps then I would find that to be odd.

[Violet_Crumble]

15. They're NOT part of Israel. What's hard to grasp about that?

And I find it just a bit odd that you don't appear to have a problem with El-al's very inaccurate map...

[oberliner]

17. Nothing is hard to grasp about that

They are shaded in a different color from Israel - just as Gaza is on that map.

If it was up to me, I would label it differently, like they do on the Wikipedia map (under Israel and Occupied Territories).