Apr 29 2010
Israeli tourism maps annex Palestinian lands
By Daoud Kuttab
Special US envoy George Mitchell has visited the area, armed with a special letter from President Barack Obama to the Palestinian president reiterating what seems to have been a US-Israel understanding that the proximity talks will take place soon.
The Palestinian side is keen this time not to waste time on talking for the sake of talking, or based on the idea of incremental negotiations. Palestinians are determined to tackle the issue of borders first and walk back from that to how to implement the establishment of the Palestinian state. In meantime the Israeli tourism ministry (in its most recent maps) has unilaterally annexed Palestine to Israel and has omitted the existence of many Palestinian communities. While the West Bank is not demarked nor mentioned as the West Bank, the general southern area is listed as Judea and in the north the area is listed as Samaria (both Biblical names). The Gaza strip, however, is demarked with the words “Azza (Gaza) strip.”
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