Pretending There's a Country Called "Palestine"

Various Western institutions list "Palestine" as a country, although there obviously is no such place. I shall note them on an occasional basis in reverse chronological order.

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Governments of Australia, China, Denmark, Finland, India, Jordan, The Netherlands, Qatar, and South Africa: A website helpfully lists the "embassies" of these 9 states in a country called "Palestine." Apparently, there is some dissent over its capital, with 5 of them in Ramallah, 3 in Gaza, and one outlier in El-Bireh. A curious bunch of governments have acceded to this fantasy, too, being made up of 4 Western states, 2 Arab states, and three miscellaneous others. (January 21, 2009)

Young Women's Christian Association: A list of worldwide YWCAs finds one for "Palestine" and none for Israel. Interestingly, "YWCA of Palestine" was founded in 1918, just as Palestine came into existence as a geographic unit and kept the term for nearly a century. Its politics can be discerned from the organization's website: "to empower Palestinian women by expanding their options, supporting their economic independence, liberating them from all kinds of oppression and enhancing their participation in the building of a free Palestinian civil society." (January 3, 2009)

American Task Force on Palestine: It comes as less than a shock to note that the third annual gala of this pro-Fatah organization would include the singing of the U.S. and Palestinian "national anthems" (the latter being "Mawtini"). But it does come as a bit of a surprise to note that it was patronized by George W. Bush, who sent a letter that was read out by James K. Glassman, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs. (October 12, 2008)

Facebook: The website that defines itself as "a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them," has decided that Israelis who live over the Green Line, for example in Ma'aleh Adumim, Ariel, and Betar Illit, live not in Israel but in "Palestine." In response, a group called "Facebook-stop discriminating Yesha!" came into existence to protest this territorial imperiousness. (March 13, 2008)

Daniel Barenboim: He's not exactly a Western institution, but the well-known Israeli pianist and conductor, has taken out citizenship in "Palestine," complete with a passport, which was bestowed on him after he conducted a Beethoven piano recital in Ramallah, West Bank. (January 13, 2008)

Frito Lay: A bag of Doritos presents 2007 Brick Award Finalist Daniel Zoughbie, 22, and recognizes him as one of "those who do something." In this case, he began the "Global Micro-Clinic Project," which the geographic geniuses at Frito Lay, a division of PepsiCo, Inc., describe thus:

Daniel transformed his grief over a death in the family into a passion to do something. His grandmother died from diabetes in Palestine, where medical care was scarce. In her memory, he began the Global Micro-Clinic Project, opening 50 health clinics throughout the West Bank. These community-owned clinics have given the Palestinian people the ability to care for each other.

(November 10, 2007)

Toysmith World Globe: A reader visited the Bay Area Discovery Museum in Sausalito (located at the northern end of the Golden Gate Bridge, just outside San Francisco), a children's museum, and bought his daughter an inflatable world globe at the gift shop. Once home, he took a closer look at his purchase and was surprised. As he puts it:

This globe features instead of Israel a state simply named Palestine with Jerusalem as capital and no mention at all of Israel or Tel Aviv. That is something I would have expected to buy in a shouk somewhere in Syria or Iran but not here in the United States, in a select museum shop!

The reader appended four pictures, of the label front and back, the Middle East as a whole and a close-in of the Levant area.

Comments: (1) This case is worse than other examples cited because it involves the negation of Israel. (2) A little research finds that The Toysmith Group is not based in Ramallah or even Kuala Lumpur, but in Auburn, Washington State. (August 8, 2007)

American Express: Here's an oddity, not pretending "Palestine" exists but that Israel is in Europe. In a list of travel "offers from around the world," AmEx has five categories: North America & Caribbean, Central/South America, Europe, Oceania–South Pacific, and Asia – note the absence of the Middle East. It places Israel in "Europe." (Apr. 5, 2006) May 10, 2009 update: Reviewing the situation three years later, the "Europe" category has been expanded to "Europe and Middle East." It includes Israel and many other Middle Eastern countries, ending Israel's marginalization.

Sesame Workshop: The children's program has a page for "Palestine" and has a muppet say that it is from Palestine. (December 29, 2005)

Van Cleef & Arpels: The famed French jewelery house not only talks about "Palestine" but raised AED 635,000 in Dubai "for the children of Palestine living in the Refugee Camps in Gaza, West Bank & Lebanon." The director of Van Cleef & Arpels, Stephane De Palmas, noted the nobility of "providing a helping hand to the children of Palestine and [giving] them a hope for a bright future full of promise and opportunities." Others, recalling the payments directed to children of suicide bombers, might be worried by this transfer of funds. (December 16, 2005)

Hollywood Foreign Press Association: The Golden Globe nominations for 2006 have been announced and one of them is Paradise Now, from a country called Palestine. (December 13, 2005)

Bell Canada: A leading Canadian corporation also imagines there's a country called "Palestine," though, unlike Bouygues, it has no map of it. (August 1, 2003)

Bouygues Telecom: One of France's main telephone companies, Bouygues Telecom, has posted rates for calling a country it calls "Palestine," seemingly unaware that there is no such place. The rate page helpfully provides a map of this supposed country, showing quite precise boundaries of its West Bank and Gaza components and even including the Jewish town of Mizpe Shalem. This corporation, it would seem, is paving the way for the French government. (July 13, 2003)

Acer Computers: Acer corporation announces in "Acer Awarded Largest-Ever IT Tender in Palestine" the sale of 14 units of quad Xeonä-based Acer Altos 21000 servers and proudly, if ungrammatically, proclaims that "these high-end servers will greatly enhance the local ministries' capability to serve the varied infrastructure requirements of its citizens." (May 2001)