A British legal group alleges Britannica Kids omits Israel from maps and mislabels the region as “Palestine,” distorting history in children’s materials.
A British legal group has accused Encyclopaedia Britannica of erasing Israel from its children’s educational materials, alleging that entries on the Britannica Kids website misrepresent Middle Eastern history and geography.
UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) said on Jan. 25 that it sent a letter to the publisher pointing out that several entries describe the entire region between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as “Palestine,” omitting any reference to the modern State of Israel. The group said maps on the site shade all of Israel and the Palestinian territories as “Palestine,” creating “a picture in which Israel does not exist at all.”
Caroline Turner, UKLFI’s director, said the materials risk presenting modern political positions as historical fact. “Educational content for children should clarify history, not confuse it,” she said, calling for “urgent review and correction” of the entries and maps.
