Air France Removes Israel from the Map

Rabat – The French airline, Air France, has allegedly removed Israel from the electronic maps displayed to passengers in some of its planes.

Air France has apparently removed Israel and Tel-Aviv from its maps, although Tel-Aviv is one of the French airline’s destinations, reported Israel’s JSSNews citing a passenger.

However, the map showed passengers the direction of “West Bank” and Gaza Strip, although none of the cities are served by Air France.

JSSNews said this information is not confirmed yet. Still, the Israeli media outlet published a picture of the electronic map obtained from a passenger.

screen shot of the map. — Picture of the map. It shows West Bank” and Gaza Strip although none of the cities are served by Air France, while Israel and Tal-Aviv apparently removed.

JSSNews quoted the passenger saying that the aircraft is equipped with digitally interactive maps that allow zooming in all directions. But “neither Israel nor Tel-Aviv appeared at any scale or angle of the map.”

Another passenger onboard an Air France plane enroute to Paris from New York reportedly confirmed to JSSNews the removal of Israel and Tel-Aviv from the maps.

This is not the first time a European airline removes Israel from the map. In 2009, the British airline, BMI, also removed the country from the electronic maps displayed to passengers in some of its planes.

Instead, the maps showed passengers the direction of Mecca. Multiple reports suggested that the reason was to avoid offending Muslim passengers.