ExtremismRep. Rashida Tlaib criticized for Mid East office map which does not show Israel

Published 9 January 2019

The office decorations of newly elected U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan) include a wall map of the Middle East which does not show the State of Israel. The map, published by the Palestinian Authority, is used in Palestinian schools, and shows the area now the Palestinian territories as one political uinit called “Palestine.” Tlaib also came in for criticism for a Twitter post in which she appears to accuse member sof Congress who oppose the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement of dual loyalty.

On Monday, the Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) published a bulletin referring to the map in the office of the new member of U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Michigan). PMW says that the purpose of the report was to focus on the problem of Palestinian Authority (PA) maps. Through theses maps, which are used in schools and in official PA documents, the PA presents a world in which Israel does not exist — such as this map in a Palestinian schoolbook which is said to represent the “geographical area” of the “state of Palestine.” [PA 7th Grade Social Studies Textbook, Part A, pp. 4, August 2017].

PMW stresses that this was the point of Monday’s bulletin: “While the map in US Congress is insulting to all those who care about Israel and peace, the map that the PA uses in its education of its children is far more problematic… How can we expect Palestinian children, who are taught that the correct map of the world has no Israel, to consider living in peace with the country they are taught should not even exist?”

PMW says that some of the site’s readers have questioned PMW’s report, saying that Congresswoman Tlaib’s map may be promoting a “state of Palestine” alongside Israel.

PMW says that since the danger to peace constituted by the PA maps was the message of the bulletin, PMW did not elaborate why it concluded that for Tlaib, the word ‘Palestine’ with an arrow pointing to Israel, based on her own statements and ideology, would likely mean “Palestine” replaces Israel.

“However, when looking at Tlaib’s expressed opinions it is clear what her ideology is,” PMW says.