Maps and books in Lebanon drop the name of Palestine
Lebanon, Politics, 10/9/1999

Former Lebanese Prime Minister Amin al-Hafez has warned of the dangers of releasing a collection of books and maps in Beirut which dropped the name "Palestine" from the map of the Arab region and replaced it with the name of Israel.

In a press conference held in Beirut on Friday in his capacity as chairman of the council of the secretaries of the Permanent Conference in Challenge of the Zionist Cultural Invasion at the headquarters of the Lebanese Press Union, al-Hafez said it is a "critical issue that the library of al-Sighar (children), of Badran company to release books and maps showing normalization inclination with the Zionist enemy at a time when Lebanon on the official and people's level resists the Zionist schemes which aim at undermining the dignity of the Lebanese people and imposing surrender on it."

Al-Hafez added that the company has dropped the name of Palestine from all maps published in these books and restricted Palestine to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as revealed in the appendix in the "student atlas" released by the Badran company as well as in the "world atlas" for Adults.

Al-Hafez added that those who combined the two atlases used the "Hebrew - Zionist" names and expressions on the maps of Palestine and Jordan like Yahuda and al-Samera.

He continued, "The permanent conference, while diverting the attention to this cultural invasion, urges the Lebanese government and sides concerned to work as soon as possible for withdrawal these books from being used and impose educational and cultural control on such composition."

The participants in the press conference called on Lebanese political, media and cultural figures, as well as the chairman of the Lebanese Press Union, Muhammad al-Balbaki, to use this conference as a sort of notification for legally chasing those who prepared the said atlases and their publishers and to withdraw them from use.

The Permanent Conference in Challenge of the Zionist Cultural Invasion also addressed a book in this concern to Lebanese Minister of Education Muhammad Youssef Baydoun denouncing this cultural aggression and calling for taking necessary deterring measures in this respect.

Previous Stories:
  Lebanon undertakes staying firm before Israeli raids   (10/8/1999)
  Finnish, Lebanese presidents voice backing for Middle East peace   (10/7/1999)
  Iranian foreign minister confers with Hizbullah chief   (10/7/1999)
  Palestinian academic calls for preservation of Arab sites' names   (11/26/1997)

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