Last week I posted about the curious omission of the name “Israel” in a list of 110 possible national destinations on the Guardian Holiday Offers site.
Listed on their site, however, were such holiday hot spots as Rwanda, Uzbekistan, Oman, Namibia, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Jordan, Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt, Cambodia, Cuba and Angola – but not the Jewish state, despite the fact the Guardian site was indeed promoting a vacation to the unmentioned country.
However, the country was referred to as “The Middle east”, and the Holiday package itself, titled “Jerusalem, Galilee, and Dead Sea”.
So, shortly after our post, a CiF Watch reader contacted the Guardian seeking an explanation.
Here’s the email sent by Richard Cooper.
Dear Sir,
On your Guardian Holiday offers webpage portal, why have you renamed Israel
‘Middle East’?Is there something we should know?
Yours faithfully,
Richard Cooper
The email was received by Guardian Deputy Letters Editor Rory Foster, who forwarded it to Lucie Lattimer (Travel and Business Manager at the Guardian and Observer) with a brief observation regarding Cooper’s query.
This does seem odd. Does anyone know what’s going on? Is it because the holiday(s) venture into the occupied territories and therefore we don’t want to say they are just Israel?
Here’s Lucie Lattimer’s reply to Cooper:
Dear Richard,
Thank for your email regarding the Riviera Travel tour to Jerusalem, Galilee & the Dead Sea promoted as a Guardian reader offer. We are of course aware of the political issues in this region and the decision was taken to promote this tour in the ‘Middle East’ region as it is a neutral term for the destinations visited.
We take the comments of our readers very seriously and appreciate the time you’ve taken to write to us. Guardian Holiday Offers have been running for 10 years and we offer holidays that we hand-pick through certain trusted partners that we believe our readers will be interested in and will find culturally informative. Our relationship with Riviera Travel has spanned this decade and they are the most popular tour operator with Guardian and Observer readers. They have an excellent record of customer service and culturally fascinating tours.
The decision to promote this particular tour was a thoroughly thought through process involving us, Riviera Travel and the Guardian Travel editorial team.
In this tour we aim to give an equal billing to the civilisations, past and present, that exist in that region dating all the way back to 800BC. It also aims to visit the unique physical attributes of that region – most notably the Dead Sea. We know that the politics of this region are fragile but aim to offer our readers the choice to visit this culturally important part of the world.
The tour visits areas which are Islamic, Judaic, Christian and Armenian. It is an educational tour of the holy land involving tours around all these religious quarters, not just Israeli, and we feel for our readers that it is an educational and cultural experience that creates awareness. We aim to give our readers the choice about where they visit.
Kind regards,
Lucie Lattimer
Just to be clear, here is the itinerary of the trip to “Middle East”, which seems to be landing in Tel Aviv, Israel, and consists of almost entirely Israeli destinations.
- Seven nights in four-star hotels with dinner (Presumably in Israel?!)
- Guided tour of Caesarea, ancient Roman capital of Judea (Israel)
- Walking tour of Acre, the only fully preserved crusader city in the world (Israel)
- Boat cruise on the Sea of Galilee (Israel)
- Visit the serene site of the Sermon on the Mount (just north of the Sea of Galilee in Israel) and the Church of the Multiplication (in Tabgha, on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel.)
- Visit the spectacular fortress of Masada (Israel)
- See Nazareth and the Church of the Annunciation (Israel)
- Guided visit to the holiest site in Christendom, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (Israel)
- See the famous Dome of the Rock and the Western Wall, holy sites of Islam and Judaism (Israel)
- Visit Bethlehem and the Church of the Nativity (Palestinian territories)
- Walking tour of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem (Israel)
- See the Dead Sea Scrolls & the Yad Vashem, the moving memorial to the Holocaust (Israel)
- Stay on the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth (Israel)
So, only one of the stops on the tour is outside of Israel proper, yet Guardian editors, so sensitive about the “fragile” “politics of the region”, decided that “Israel” wasn’t a “politically” acceptable characterization of a trip to the Jewish state.
As our friend Richard cheekily observed, perhaps tours of Cyprus (given the sensitive territorial dispute between Greece and Turkey) should be named Phoenicia!
Or, I was thinking, maybe Iraq, in light of the Kurds’ long desire for national independence, should be more sensitively referred to on the Guardian Travel page as “Babylonia”, or even “Mesopotamia”.
The list of possible national euphemisms are endless.
If you want to follow-up and share your thoughts to Lucie, and her associate at the Guardian Holiday Offers desk, Jon Neill, contact them at holidayoffers@guardian.co.uk
Adam Levick
Jerusalem, Middle East
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- Did Guardian journalists violate international law? Delegitimization of the settlements jumps the shark (cifwatch.com)
- Sarah Irving’s “Palestine” tourism story in the Guardian omits one tiny border country (cifwatch.com)
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48 comments
Comments feed for this article
February 5, 2012 at 7:33 am
Drew Lewis
A specious and fragile reply from Miss Lucie, replete with red herrings. Unless my eyesight is betraying me, the ‘World Guides’ map seems also to have discovered a place called ‘Eliat’ at the head of the Red Sea. It’s good to be able to rely on an authoritative guide.
February 6, 2012 at 4:57 am
Yigal
Did M. Levick skip geography classes back in his young years? Bethleem is in Palestine, not in Israel. A big part of Jerusalem’s Old City, including the Noble Sanctuary / Temple Mount is also in Palestine, not in Israel (it was officially given to Palestinian officials by Moshe Dayan back in 67).
February 6, 2012 at 6:30 am
conchovor
‘A big part of Jerusalem’s Old City, including the Noble Sanctuary / Temple Mount is also in Palestine, not in Israel (it was officially given to Palestinian officials by Moshe Dayan back in 67)’
But there is a good case for saying the Jewish Quarter, Western Wall and even the Temple Mount, to some degree, is or should be part of Israel, so long as it is acceded that the Dome of the Rock is Palestine, as per the Clinton Parameters. The Guardian after all reported that Arafat accepted these, too late, a year and half after they were put on the table:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jun/22/israel
In the interests of peace The Guardian could promote such a plan, even as Jonathan Freedland promoted the Geneva Accord in a Guardian editorial in 2003. But The Guardian isn’t interested in peace, it seems to me, on the whole. And Jonathan Freedland has been pretty spineless in all of this.
February 6, 2012 at 6:34 am
conchovor
The Clinton Parameters
Jerusalem
According to the Parameters, Israel would retain sovereignty over the Western Wall. The Palestinians would gain sovereignty and Israel would gain “symbolic ownership” over the rest of the Temple Mount, with both parties sharing sovereignty over the issue of excavations under the Temple Mount. East Jerusalem and its Old City would be divided according to ethnic lines, with Israel retaining sovereignty over Jewish neighborhoods, and the Palestinians gaining sovereignty over Arab neighborhoods.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clinton_Parameters
It is in The Guardian’s power to promote such a compromise. The question is, why doesn’t it?
February 5, 2012 at 8:35 am
Sally
Reminds me of a trip I did once to Southern Europe. It was really educational. We went to Florence and Pisa and then Rome, which are all cities in Southern Europe. Later we stayed in Naples, which is further south in Southern Europe and very old and historic. Returning north (toward Northern Europe) we visited Padua and Venice, both of them famous old cities of Southern Europe. It was wonderfully educational. Learned a lot about Southern Europe. I’d recommend it to anybody.
February 5, 2012 at 9:00 am
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February 5, 2012 at 9:02 am
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February 5, 2012 at 9:09 am
Millfield
What exactly does the Guardian know about the tourist industry?, or the Middle East for that matter?
In just one year since the beginning of that great Guardian liberal dream of Arab democracy the tourist industry in the Middle East has all but self destructed. Except of course in that one country in the Middles East which cannot be named where tourism is actually at a record and which has actually been a liberal democracy for the last 64 years.
In the same week when the Egyptian gas pipline was blown up for the 12th time not only does Israel discover yet another gas field of 1.3 trillion cubic feet at the Tanin prospect off Haifa, but the Israeli cabinet approves the building by Chinese companies of a railway line from Eilat to to the Med. A container takes 16 hours to cross the Suez Canal if it can find a slot, whilst a Chinese bullet train will take less than 2 hours. Guardianistas eat your heart out!
The Guardian in its hatred of Israel buries its head in the Arab sand or up the anti-Semites backside whilst the country that cannot be named, unless it is delegitimised or libelled, quietly forges ahead.
February 5, 2012 at 11:14 am
Thank God I'm An Infidel
As they say, the best revenge is success.
February 5, 2012 at 9:16 am
conchovor
Parts of this article are idiotic. I think the Jewish quarter, Western Wall and even, to some degree, the Temple Mount should be part of Israel. But to say the Church of the Holy Sepulchre or Dome of the Rock are in Israel, when the whole point is that they are in disputed East Jerusalem, without qualification, is remarkably obtuse. That is precisely +why+ the Guardian isn’t using the term ‘Israel’.
February 5, 2012 at 10:43 am
Ariadne
Israel has annexed the part of Jerusalem Jordan occupied illegally. Fayyad appears to want all of Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
Why should Israel give up anything UNSCR 242 allows her to keep? And why should the Arabs who have never kept a clause of Oslo be allowed to land-grab so egregiously?
February 5, 2012 at 12:28 pm
conchovor
‘Why should Israel give up anything UNSCR 242 allows her to keep?’
Why should The Guardian refer to all of disputed East Jerusalem as ‘Israel’?
February 5, 2012 at 12:38 pm
conchovor
Or to Bethlehem, which is in the West Bank?
I think most of the large settlement blocs should be part of Israel, in a negotiated settlement. But why is The Guardian obliged to call them ‘Israel’.
Don’t get me wrong, I think TG has become an enemy of a negotiated peace deal, especially since the farce of the Palestine Papers (in which Jonathan Freedland implicated himself, reprehensibly). But it is necessary to recognise the complexity of the situation (which TG admittedly hardly does). Jerusalem Old and New will have to be negotiated and divided, likewise a deal worked out on the settlements. Else I fear for Israel’s long term future.
But TG is hardly obliged to call any of these ‘Israel’, though I think making an exception for the Jewish Quarter and Western Wall would work in the interests of peace, by promoting a comprise that both parties would have to reach in negotiations.
However, I don’t know why TG couldn’t have referred to ‘Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories).
February 5, 2012 at 1:31 pm
Another Joshua
Conchover asks: “However, I don’t know why TG couldn’t have referred to ‘Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories).”
Perhaps they hate Israel, and calling it Israel, especially as a holiday destination, implies that Israel exists. Heaven forbid!
Isn’t that the whole very serious point of this article?
February 5, 2012 at 2:07 pm
conchovor
‘Isn’t that the whole very serious point of this article?’
No, it makes some extraneous ones about how (it seems) all of disputed East Jerusalem is Israel.
February 5, 2012 at 3:51 pm
Samson
Why not just refer to “the Zionist entity, that will soon be erased from the pages of time, and the territories occupied by the infidels”?
Even Hamas, Hezbulah and Iran have the decency to refer to Israel by some name, albeit not it’s actual name. The Guardian once again shows why it is the lowest of the low.
February 5, 2012 at 3:55 pm
SerJew
That´s because they retain a little shame/guilt, so they have to hide from themselves their anti-Semitic hatred. That´s not the case with palestinians who, after all, sided with nazis anyways, led by their beloved Great Muppet of Jerusalem.
February 5, 2012 at 5:21 pm
conchovor
‘That´s because they retain a little shame/guilt, so they have to hide from themselves their anti-Semitic hatred.’
Was that addressed to me?
February 5, 2012 at 5:24 pm
conchovor
Sorry, I deduce now you addressed it rhetorically to The Guardian.
February 5, 2012 at 5:14 pm
conchovor
‘Why not just refer to “the Zionist entity’
WTF?
February 5, 2012 at 5:58 pm
Samson
To clarify this point, the Guardian’s failure to refer to Israel by name is an attempt to further demonize the Jewish state (i.e., Israel = Lord Voldemort) or simply deny its existence. Even Israel’s mortal enemies refer to it by some name (e.g., “Zionist entity), thereby grudgingly acknowledging its existence, even if as something they plan to destroy. The Guardianistas, anti-Zionist Jew haters that they are, cannot even bring themselves to refer to Israel as an actual thing, only as “The Middle East.” Aside from being counterfactual – in this case, a misleading lie – it is the kind of loathsome anti-Semitism we have all come to expect from this loathsome paper. This kind of behavior is indefensible from something that considers itself a newspaper.
So, my advice is don’t try to defend it.
February 5, 2012 at 6:16 pm
conchovor
‘So, my advice is don’t try to defend it.’
Keep your advice, Samson. I was speaking of certain parts of East Jerusalem, which the article said were Israel, without qualification.
TG is not obliged to say or assume e.g. the Dome of the Rock etc is Israel, even if the Temple Mount is.
So far as I am concerned, you’re giving it free ammunition if you say it is.
February 5, 2012 at 6:54 pm
Samson
You can take my advice or not, that is your business.
I don’t really care what you think about Jerusalem or the holy places therein.
My point remains that the failure of Guardian to mention Israel by name – in a travel offering that is almost entirely within the indisputable current boundaries of the state of Israel, no less – is a repulsive act by a newspaper well known to the readers of this blog to be anti-Zionist and frequent anti-Semitic. As already noted in many of the comments attached to this posting, there are many places in the world whose ownership is considered to be in dispute by one or more parties, yet they are all mentioned by name in the Guardian travel section. Even the Guardian itself mentions Israel in its news and opinion sections, which makes it being persona non grata in the travel offerings even more ludicrous.
I’ll stand by my previous comments and leave it at that for now.
February 6, 2012 at 6:35 am
conchovor
‘I don’t really care what you think about Jerusalem or the holy places therein.’
Then why did you try to engage me in discussion? Just to rant at me?
That figures…
February 5, 2012 at 5:10 pm
ziontruth
conchovor,
“Jerusalem Old and New will have to be negotiated and divided, likewise a deal worked out on the settlements. Else I fear for Israel’s long term future.”
You seem unaware that the Jewish State is confronted with an imperialistic enemy, one that wants to appropriate not this or that part of what the Jewish nation possesses, but everything.
Israel’s enemy is not the fraudulent non-Jewish “Palestinian nation” (only the Jews are the Palestinian nation), but Islamic imperialism, the selfsame force that is behind the belligerency in (as just one example) Nigeria.
February 5, 2012 at 5:18 pm
conchovor
‘You seem unaware that the Jewish State is confronted with an imperialistic enemy’
Which is why TG should say the Dome of the Rock or Church of the Holy Sepulchre is part of Israel how, exactly?
February 5, 2012 at 5:53 pm
ziontruth
conchovor,
Please. You were the one who brought the point that:
“Jerusalem Old and New will have to be negotiated and divided, likewise a deal worked out on the settlements.”
which is germane to Der Guardian’s refusal to refer to the Jewish State by name how, exactly?
February 5, 2012 at 6:19 pm
conchovor
‘which is germane to Der Guardian’s refusal to refer to the Jewish State by name how, exactly?’
It isn’t: you raised that. It’s germane to why it isn’t obliged to call e.g. the Dome of the Rock Israel.
February 5, 2012 at 12:16 pm
Ric Cooper
In my reply to Lucie Lattimer I said:
The following destinations listed on this holiday’s itinerary are inside the borders of the territory allocated to Israel by UN Resolution 181 of 1947 and undisputed by any serious party:
Tel Aviv
Caesarea
Tiberias
Capernaum
Tabgha
Masada
Yad VaShem, although inside the Jerusalem ‘corpus separatum’ proposed by Resolution 181, is nevertheless so quintessentially Jewish that no fair-minded person could consider it otherwise.
By going back to Resolution 181 I aimed to cut the ground from under any anti-Zionist nit-picking.
February 5, 2012 at 9:52 am
john in cheshire
So, it’s a trip around Israel plus an excursion to the land known as Palestine, currently occupied by arabs.
February 5, 2012 at 10:57 am
Ariadne
A) Jerusalem population estimate of Dr. Schultze, Prussian consul in 1845:
7,120 Jews, 5,000 Muslims, 3,390 Christians, 800 Turkish soldiers and 100 Europeans.
B) “The sedentary population of Jerusalem numbers about 15,500 souls, of whom 4,000 are Mussulmans (Muslims) and 8,000 Jews. The Mussulmans forming about a fourth part of the whole, and consisting of Turks, Arabs, and Moors…” (Karl Marks, new York Daily Tribune, 15 April 1854).
C) Population estimate of 1868 in the Jerusalem Almanack: 9,000 Jews, 5,000 Muslims, 4,000 Christians . D) Population, Ottoman subjects 1905: 40,000 Jews, 10,900 Christian Arabs, 8,000 Muslim Arabs. Total Population 58,900. By 1914 the Jewish population was 45,000. E) “Out of about 60,000 inhabitants some 40,000 are jews.” (Miss Freer, Inner Jerusalem, 1907). All are quoted in: “Jerusalem: Illustrated History Atlas”, Martin Gilbert, Macmillan Publishing, New York, 1978
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19551586/JERUSALEM-Illustrated-History
February 5, 2012 at 11:07 am
TomWonacott
In their letter to Richard, it took about 270 words before they finally mentioned the most dreaded word in the English language “Israel”. And there is no reason to boycott the Guardian??
February 5, 2012 at 1:18 pm
cityca
“Where were you on holiday”.
“The Holy Land”.
“How was it?”
“Fascinating”.
“See many Jews?”
“Don’t know. Do any live there?”
“Apparently. In a place called Israel.
“Ah, I wouldn’t know – we didn’t go there, at least, not according to the itinerary. That’s why we always book via the Guardian.”
February 5, 2012 at 1:28 pm
David Fried
I thought I’d share my letter to Miss Lucie:
You’re very funny. Imagine if the Bible were amended to refer to “the Middle East” instead of “Israel.” When Jacob wrestled with the angel all night but was not overcome, he received a new name—“Middle East.” His twelve sons were known as the “Children of Middle East.”
By the way, you wrote: “The tour visits areas which are Islamic, Judaic, Christian and Armenian. It is an educational tour of the holy land involving tours around all these religious quarters, not just Israeli.” Israel is a state, not an area or a religious quarter, whose citizens are Muslim (not “Islamic”); Jewish (not “Judaic”); Christian; Druze; and Baha’i. Armenians are Christians, by the way—have you ever met one?
As for the Dead Sea as the “lowest point on earth”—wouldn’t that actually be the Guardian offices?
Hoping one day to visit the Western Isles, I remain
Yours faithfully,;
David Fried
February 5, 2012 at 2:14 pm
Ariadne
You final sentence, David:
That’s nice but it is actually fine to call them the Western Isles. As long as those you refer to are the Scottish ones.
February 6, 2012 at 3:34 pm
David Fried
@ Ariadne:
D’oh, I knew that, even if I do live in Boston USA. I was having a senior moment–”Albion” escaped me. Or is there a better one?
The thing is, the anti-Semitic left is well past demonization, and is now in the realm of taboo, where Israel is the “Country Whose Name We Do Not Speak.” Either here or in Harry’s Place I remember an anecdote by an Israel who found people literally edging away from him at a political meeting after he identified himself as Israeli. The crowd actually parted as he left.
Perhaps slightly off-topic–it’s remarkable how much comfort I, as a Jew and an atheist, derive from living in a Christian country like the US. An important part of the CIF world-view is the idea that religion in general and the Bible in particular are despicable and their adherents are clinically insane. Zionism was not a religious movement, by and large, and israel is not a theocracy, but post-Christians are particularly ill-positioned when it comes to any sort of imaginative sympathy with Jews as a people formed by religion.
Assuming that most of the commenters here are Brits, I’d like to know if I am misreading your country. Thoughts?
February 5, 2012 at 3:35 pm
SerJew
What about a tour of Londinium, Camulodunum, Duruvernum, Mamucium, Eboracum, Isca Dumnoniorum, Ratea Corietalvorum, Noviomagus Reginorum and Eboracum?
February 5, 2012 at 3:42 pm
Ariadne
I was very disappointed in Camulodunum and I;m not too sure that some of these ums exist outside a Roman fantasiyaorum.
Maybe all of them could be called “Palestine”.
February 5, 2012 at 3:52 pm
SerJew
Those neurotic Romans were very creative with names, you must admit.
February 5, 2012 at 4:33 pm
Gerald
Poor Isca Dumnoniorum.
First the Romans, then the Luftwaffe and now Ilan Pappe.
How much bad luck can befall a place.
February 7, 2012 at 12:59 am
Thank God I'm An Infidel
Shouldn’t it be the Romans, the Luftwaffe, the Islamists supported by Ilan Pappe?
February 5, 2012 at 1:54 pm
TomWonacott
There are territorial disputes all over the world, but the states involved are still listed as vacation spots. See India and China, for example. Does the Guardian recognize the Palestinian (wishful thinking) map of the world perhaps?
February 5, 2012 at 2:06 pm
terry malloy
Good point. If one wanted to visit Kashmir, for example, among other regions in India, would the Guardian simply rename the whole destination “South Asia (or some other variant)” to get around the fact that there is political dispute between India & Pakistan in Kashmir? So, if I choose to only visit Mumbai or Chennai I’ll have visited “South Asia?” FTG.
February 5, 2012 at 3:21 pm
SerJew
I wonder how Der Schwarze Guardian would classify a tour of Gibraltar. Or the Falklands (or should we say, Malvinas). They just invented the politically-correct tourism guide.
February 5, 2012 at 7:39 pm
proud2bnisraeli
I love the part where she says “We take our readers comments very seriously”
Except when these comments are made by pro-Israelis then we systematically delete them or we just vaporize them.
February 5, 2012 at 7:47 pm
proud2bnisraeli
Their excuses are lame, plain dumb like the one that Deborah Jane Orr made.
Is there any one at this racist rag that can actually come up with the truth and not some dumb half baked bull-shit excuse……
February 6, 2012 at 7:03 am
Sally
Speaking of travel, I am about to go to Croatia for a holiday which includes side trips into Montenegro and Bosnia, but it is still billed as a trip to Croatia. Why can’t a trip to Israel include side trips into disputed territories and still be called a trip to Israel?
February 6, 2012 at 11:25 am
Thank God I'm An Infidel
What about Cyprus?