BMI Airlines Deletes Israel From Map

Britain's BMI Airlines are suffering the wrath of Israeli passengers flying into Tel Aviv, due to an apparent glitch whereby Israel is left off of the in-flight map, AFP reports. BMI is denying any political agenda and cites the aircrafts' previous owners -- who flew predominately in Muslim countries. According to AFP:

But the airline denied any anti-Israel agenda and insisted there was a simple explanation: the planes were recently bought from a bankrupt charter company that flew mainly to Muslim countries.

"For this reason the inflight entertainment system in the two planes was made to adapt to the passengers flying to and from those destinations and therefore the map showed mainly places holy to Islam," BMI said in a statement.

For passengers flying into Tel Aviv, the outdated imaging software apparently refers to the city by its pre-1948 name, Haifa, the Jerusalem Post reports. With the recent outcry, the issue has been sufficiently called to BMI's attention. According spokesman Phil Shepherd speaking to Jerusalem Post:

"Because of the routes that [BMED] flew at that time, that's why the digital map was showing what it was showing... When we bought [BMED] out, we integrated it into BMI... The moving map should have been disabled when the software was updated, so the moving map shouldn't have been operating at all. It only came to light recently that it was still showing. We had a procedure to switch it off... when we started the Tel Aviv route... but for some reason it wasn't disabled."

Another quirk left over from the planes' previous owners that caters to Muslim passengers is a distance and direction counter for the plane's proximity to Mecca, according to Haaretz.

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Comments

[joeinvt]

Did the League of Nations at the urging of the Brits and French have the right to create the countries of the mid-east as they did after WWI? Should we erase all the countries and borders they created or just Israel? Remember the Iran-Iraq War and the first Gulf War were both border disputes caused by the manner in which the maps of Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait were drawn.

[chaos4700]

The operative difference being that the Arab nations actually /respected/ the borders that were drawn, ultimately, whether or not they agreed fully with what was being imposed. Israel has never, not for its entire history, adhered to the boundaries that were drawn for Israel.

[BubbaC33]

Yet another posting that is not accurate. The Arabs rejected the partition plan, to try to make it seem they accepted it in any form or fashion is historically inaccurate.

[Acidic]

I really wish they could find a solution to this conflict, it's the ROOT problem of almost every foreign policy issue in the world. If they can get this done the whole world could take a deep collective breath.

[BubbaC33]

It is wrong to blame the Israel-Arab conflict for most foreign policy problems, that is wrong minded. When Iraq invaded Kuwait it had nothing at all to do with Israel. When the taliban attacks the existing government in Pakistan that has nothing to do with israel. The problems the US is about to have with China have nothing to do with israel. The world economy problems have nothing to do with Israel.

[jwcmass]

I could be wrong, but I think I read somewhere that the Israeli Palestinian conflict was the REAL reason teh dinsaurs went extinct 65 million years ago.

C'mon, fess up.

[Grada3784]

Jews, Moslems and Christians have all desecrated the land. How much more blood must drench that soil?

Question for all those who call it the Holy Land: When the heck are you going to start treating it as holy?

[MideastDove]

Unfortunately, all the "Holy" books seem to support a great deal that is "unholy".

So, you can imagine it will take a long long time.

[Harrier]

A poor excuse

[BubbaC33]

What is interesting on this site is the constant demands for an Arab state carved out of Israel because the Palestinians owned it first. That claim goes hand in hand with the idea that Jews have no right to live i Israel because it is the creation of the UN and the Brits. If all of that is what the Arabists here believe their hypocrisy is revealed. Jordan was formed from lands of the Palestinian people. It was the artificial creation of the British mandate administrators. The rulers of Jordan are not native to the region, but transplants from arabia.
My point is the Arabists on this site demand action from israel, the Jews, that they do not demand from the Arabs in Jordan. One cannot argue for the creation of a Palestinian homeland inside Israel without also demanding that Jordan give up its land for an Palestinian homeland.

[Sentientbeing09]

Oh Bubba..

Jordan arent keeping the Palestinians in ghettos at gunpoint, stealing water, demolishing houses, annexing land, building illegal neighborhoods, blockading roads and preventing civilian aid.

Jordan arent bombing civilians with 1000 pound bombs, chemical weapons and cluster bombs. Jordan doesnt cost the US taxpayer 3 Billion dollars a year, plus more Billions in US aid spent to rebuild Palestine every time the IDF goes on another random civilian demolition competition.

Jordan arent the underwriters and insurers for the crimes of Israel.

How about Israel takes responsibility for its own actions sometime.

[chaos4700]

Yeah, seriously. Bubba's such a phony. He was even an IDF soldier and he can't take ownership of what he's been a part of. All he can do is spout false history and trash the liberal left for demanding some shred of honesty and integrity from him.

You know the truth about Bubba? He's even told us where he was born -- Texas! -- and that Hebrew wasn't his first language.

[BubbaC33]

Do you know how and where the Arab terrorist group Black September got its name? You remember, ther cowards responsible for the deaths of the israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972? The name came from the all out attack by the Arab Legion, Jordan's top military unit. They killed a large number of Arabs and ran them out of Jordan. Ethnic cleansing, but none of your Arabists ever think of this incident.

[BubbaC33]

You have complained that Israel is an artificial of the Brits, but Jordan has no history prior to 1922 and you make no demands of it. The Brits installed a foreigner as king and yet I have yet to read a complaint from a single pro-Arab writer.
And you're wrong, the Jordanian army used a lot of the military hardware you claim Israel has used when the Arab Legion drove out the PLO.

[Joeycascio]

What truly is amazing here is that there is range and broad group of bloggers here who are critical of Israeli actions in the West Bank, the demolition of Palestinian homes in WEst Jerusalem which as reported in the NY Times is because Israeli government will only allow 13% of area for Palestinians and wont approve building permits beyond that (imagine if the US limited construction permits by race), the attempt to ban Arab political parties in Israel, the choice of the new Israeli government to refuse to recognize that the Palestinians have a right to their own country, but about two or three bloggers here who consistently defend Israel regardless what it does.

It shows a change in public opinion that I have never seen before - now these bloggers must contact elected officials so that Congress finally follows the will of the average person. I know many will say its a waste of time but not if it is done in numbers and coordinated. The right wing lobbying group AIPAC is not what it was - J street the new younger and progressive Lobbying group is growing in numbers, and with Obama there is a leader who finally wants to be even handed - this is the time to try to resolve this issue justly and fairly!

[Paul Hackett]

You're right, its important to note the range of opinion from a wide variety of people who are rightly critical of Israel for its disgusting actions towards the Palestinians. On the other hand it should also be noted that there is a concerted campaign form the likes of AIPAC and other pro-zionism organizations in the US to snow blogs such as these with pro-Israel comments. These people will only be exposed for the narrow-minded tribalists that they are if more and more ordinary Americans take an interest in this issue and stand up to them. We have allowed our foreign policy be directed by the likes of AIPAC for far too long. Many people in this organization are guilty of treason in my opinion.

[alexa07]

Time will tell, but the resolution of the 60 yrs. of messes in Palestine won't be resolved anywhere but in the economic sphere with the growing international movements of boycott, divestment & sanction for all things Israeli. Who would want to support in any fashion theft & demolitions of Palestinian properties, attacking families (even farm animals!) in their own homes, squatter roads & tunnels, etc. No matter how many of us contact our US Congress representatives, they remain besotted & refuse to open their eyes to what is happening to the Palestinian people. Sadly. Barney last night on Bill Mar was a good case in point with Fareed Zakaria & others (even Bill himself!) pointing out evidence to the contrary.

[alexa07]

ooops sorry, it's Bill Maher of course!

[chaos4700]

Then we will have to simply vote them out of office. The Republican party has been actively destroying the foundations of the United States, and the Democratic party hasn't yet demonstrated the courage or strength of will to undo the damage. Maybe it's time Americans realize there /are/ more than two choices.

[GGMarks]

IT's called eyes wide shut.... but try to talk about the reasons why our governors ignore the crimes of Israel???? -- and find your account closed.

The reach of the bad guys is soooo vast that we all know we must take it for granted - AND watch our words and criticisms...

which only makes me HATE those people..... it makes lots of people HATE those people.

Now if you try to identify those people.... your account is closed.

what a terrific country eh?

[ThirdSection]

It just goes to show that when you purchase new facilities, you should make sure they're ready for presentation before opening them to the customers!

[OneHotProcessor]

All - For Pete's sake, this isn't about anything political between Israel, Palestine, or Muslim nations. THIS IS A SOFTWARE GLITCH IN THE FREAKING IN-FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM! Take your political discussions elsewhere. They already explained how it happened, and that they are remedying the situation. Some of this stuff I'm reading doesn't have anything to do with a. airplanes b. in-flight entertainment systems or c. the possibility that sometimes, on occasion, software is messed up.

[jwcmass]

I know it may seem that way--and to some one unfamiliar with the region, you look at this story and go, huh?

But the Middle East has it's own different ways of perceiving the world--different from what we are familiar with in the West.

Believe it or not , (and BOTH sides tend to do this) it's often as if they can create a reality (with a map, software, book) and make it real.

If Palestine isn't there, then we don't have to deal with the Palestinians.

If Israel isn't there, we don't have to deal with the Israelis.

Almost like wishing your problems away in some bizarre alternate reality.


Crazy, huh? But some on BOTH sides do it, because confronting the reality means making compromises and sacrifices that they really, really, REALLY don't want to make.

It's much easier to live in that alternate universe where the other side doesn't exist (or doesn't exist in the land they both want-- and have to find a way to share).

That's what's behind this "glitch"--- you also see it with teh interminable arguments on which group (Israelis or Palestinians) have "been on the land" longer, and thus have more claim to it.

[TheBaffler]

There is no Is rael, there is only occupied Pale stine.

[mtaylor90028]

Right u are!

[BubbaC33]

The number of folks posting here attacking Israel are missing a very important point.
Israel is the Jewish homeland, as it has been for over 4,000 years. We are not going to leave. We are not going to give up our Jewish identity. Israel is but a small slice of the region and given the similarities among Arabs there is no great reason to prohibit us from living in the restored State of Israel.
Arabs have the bulk of the Middle East, let thew "Palestinians" assimilate into Jordan or Yemen or Saudi Arabia or any other Arab nation. Any Arabs who wish to stay inside Israel, on the West Bank for example, should be allowed to do so as a state within a federal Israel. Which is to say no one moves from the West Bank. The Arabs living there have an Arab government separate from the Israeli government. But the West Bank stays a part of Israel in order to provide the strategic depth necessary for the defense of Israel. And israel retains free movement in the mountainous part of the West Bank in order to detect Iranian missles at the earliest possible moment.

[Sentientbeing09]

NOBODY is ethnically cleansing Palestinans from their homes and shipping them off to Jordan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia or any other random 'Arab nation' whatever Israeli utopian fantasies you may posses.

Any attempt to do that by Israel would cause it to become a pariah state overnight, comparable only to 1970s and 1980s South Africa. Israel would collapse within a generation.
The only people even considering such ridiculous notions are right-wing Israelis and a small but vocal number of US Zionists.

Its not going to happen.

[BubbaC33]

As usual an Arabist answers without reading the entire posting, which is to be expected.
Throwing around terms like ethnic cleansing is a way to create something I did not propose. Ethnic cleansing requires murder, not negotiating for Arabs to move to an Arab state. The folks like this one who use that term do so to inflame the discussion, not to make a reasoned or reasonable argument.

[joeinvt]

But they have been ethnically cleansing Jews from every Arab nation for more than 70 years.

Iraq used to have an indigenous Jewish population of around 135, 000 and now its down to under 500. Egypt went from 100,000 to 200 or so. Iran, not an Arab country, has been more favorable to its indigenous Jews. Around 25% of its previous population of 100,000 or so still remain. Argue that their plight is a separate issue, but don't break out the tired arguments that they were eager to leave or deserved to be displaced because other Jews somewhere else were doing bad things.

[omar younis]

Great. How about tomorrow Russia comes into Israel and throws everyone out, and says: "Let israel 'assimilate' into the rest of europe and the middle east."

Nobody is arguing that israel doesn't deserve a state -- we are only saying that you are not allowed to just take it away from other people and say "get the f--k out of here, this is ours."

[jimmyjones22]

The overwhelming majority of the Palestinian land was taken by Jordan. check your maps, you hack.

[BubbaC33]

You cannot have it both ways. If Jews deserve to have a state then Israel has to exist. But your other argument is in direct opposition to that idea.

[jwcmass]

Bubba,

There are more than a few problems with your plan--

The Palestinians do not see themselves as just Arabs who can move around to anothr MiddleEastern country than the Irish see themselves as British and able to live anywhere in the British Isles (they may be able to DO so, but they don't see THEMSELVES in that way.)

They have as strong an attachment to the land as you and your fellow Israelis do-- and they can put forward an equal claim.

Yet in ANY settlement they know they will end up with far less than half.

But you want it all -- and you can't have both. You can have land and ever growing INsecurity (with an ever growing and mnmore radicalizing Palestinian population

Or you can compromise (which means the West Bank) and hacve the peace and Security. (and I'm sure the US would assist on missle security for Israel--though a peaceful resolution itself would greatly reduce that threat.)

This is PRECISELY why Yitzhak Rabin sought to make peace in the early 1990's. He saw the days of missles and WMDs coming, and he recobnized the BEST way to provide Israel with long term security was to reslve the whole dispute with the Palestinians -- and that meant land.


Like it or not your two people's fates are intertwined--but they cannot continue in this status quo (military and settler occupation) indefinitely

[BubbaC33]

I made a proposal concerning the West Bank, which has never been a Palestinian Homeland. When Israel took it in 1967 it was held by Jordan. Jordan, the Arab nation that never saw fit to create a Palestinian homeland..
The missles that might be fired at israel require an israeli presence on the West Bank. To have any time to prepare for a missle attack requires the strategic height afforded by the moutainous part of the West Bank.

[Joeycascio]

Thanks for sharing AIPAC's talking points.

Also Nice apology for taking the land people had lived on for generations. Also love your enlightened intelligent view that all Arabs are the same. You really grasp all the fine details of the region - were you in the Bush administration?

[BubbaC33]

No, I am an israeli.

[moflard]

The problem with your statement about Arab similarities is that you're making it from an external point of view. It's like saying all Jewish ethnicities are the same, or all Celts or any other ethnic group. It's problematic from an internal reference, but it's gaily tripping into a mine field to sate it from an outside perspective. No matter how well you think you know the people, its a judgement you're simply not qualified to make as ethnic identity is a complex play of internal and external perceptions and forces.

You're also ignoring the legitimate claims the Palestinians have for FULL statehood. After all if it was fair enough for the Jewish colonists to make this demand, then it's fair enough for the Palestinians - they are a nation, in part, ironically enough, due to the formation and actions of Israel. They won't accept anything less, and your federal idea looks suspiciously like another method to "fix" the demographics of the area. There you're definitely on a hiding to nothing..

[MysticMirage]

isrealis are driven by thier biblical prophetic dreams and wont stop unless they redraw all the traditional borders of Eretz Yisrael and drive out the last of the palestinians aka Cannanites. its all so obvious now i dont know why it took me forever to notice it! it explains all the blind support from western politicians mostly fundamentalists christians(bush, cheney etc..) also driven by messianic ideology.

[BubbaC33]

Your idea on Israel is absolutely wrong.

[jwcmass]

Yes he is wrong, but there ARE many evangelical Christians here who think like this (and until recently dominated US foreign policy to a frighening aspect) and I suspect that there are more than a few extremist settlers who espouse this ideology (Kach was one of the illegal ones).

What makes me nervous is how many votes someone like Avigdor Lieberman received with a platform that is blatantly racist and would be inconceivable in Israel just 20 years ago -- wanting to strip citizens of their citizenship? (and let's not pretend that that isn't the whole purpose behind the oath or military service-- which of course yeshiva students are exempt from)

[Sentientbeing09]

Its great news. It shows the Israelis that its not as easy as they think to wipe Palestine off the map.

I know it was a genuine mistake by BMI, and I wish more international companies had more balls to do it deliberately.

Israel only exists by virtue of public recognition anyway. Much of the land theyre living on is illegally occupied.

[LittleSanityLeft]

"Israel only exists by virtue of public recognition anyway."

That's one of the dumbest things I've read or heard in a very long time. Every country or territory wouldn't exist save for public recognition. Every single one.

[Sentientbeing09]

Uhm. Thats my point..?

The Israelis attempt to link any discussion of the ending of the occupation with 'recognition of Israel' by Palestinians speaks volumes.

The outrage generated by BMI in pro-Israel posters on this thread proves how sensitive the recognition issue is _in their world_. Nobody else cares.

Can you imagine this kind of outrage being generated in any other country around the world? I cant.

It would be non-story.

[TerrapinCB]

intolerance and ignorance can almost always be traced back to organized religion.

stop pushing your imaginary friends and your "traditions" on everyone else. Never did the minority have such swaying power.

[MysticMirage]

i am so sick and tired of people saying stupid things like jews from europe are indeginous to palestine therfore have a right to oust the native palestinians who are descendants of the ancient israelites, phonecians and cannanites who have been aramized then arabized. Israel is a rouge nation driven by biblical dreams alligned with fundamentalist christians who want to place the jews in palestine so when the messiah comes he can convert the jews or kill them. That is the real reason why so many christians support the illegal rouge state who attacks their neighbours and steals lands. i stopped supporting israel after they bombed gaza (the new warsaw ghetto) a people who were already under a siege in the first place, they placed rabbis in their army and preached a religous war against innocent palestinians (mostly women and children)

[WorldPeaceService]

Mystic Mirage,

You need to get your facts straight. ARABS ARE NOT DIRECT DESCENDENTS OF THE ISRAELITES!!! The Israelites are and always have been Jews and only Jews. No other religion, culture, ethnicity or race are part of the Israelites. It's like saying the ancient Jews were once Arabs. Never happened. Not going to happen. The Palestinians are Muslim or Christian and are of another ethnicity and race entirely.

[landmine]

Abraham had three sons, two sons of whom were: Shem and Ham. Didn't Hebrews and Arabs spring from each respectively? Sounds like they are related to me.
Or do you still think they are only related to the mothers?

[AntiSocialite]

Sorry buddy, both are Semitic peoples...go back far enough and they are one in the same. Hence the reason they are both called Semitic. Look it up, unless of course you believe the earth is only 6000 years old, in which case there is no hope.

Peace

[chaos4700]

Of course you're completely ignoring the fact that there are distinct ethniciies within Judaism itself -- Askenazim versus Sephardic, for instance. Or Persian Jews, or Ethiopian Jews.

So it's a little bit disingenuous to portray Jews as a singular, coherent, homogeneous ethnic group.

[Ergon]

Read Arthur Koestler's The 13th Tribe. European Jews (Ashkenazy) are descendants of the Khazars who converted to Judaism in the 8th century ACE.
Who were the Hyksos, the tribe that took over Egypt and eventually were Exodused, er, expelled from Egypt?
Weren't the 10 tribes of the Diaspora spread out over Iraq, Persia and Afghanistan and then converted to Islam?
And most of the remaining 2 tribes converted to Christianity and Islam.
So I'd state that Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews have some connection to the land, which doesn't supercede the indigenous Palestinians, but the Ashkenazi are connected to the areas around the Black Sea and Poland. Where they can go, if they don't like living with 'Arabs'.

[MysticMirage]

No i know my facts really well i know the history of Arabization and palestinians are descendants of israelites, cannanites and phoneicians MAJOR FACT! a few of them came from the arabian peninusla but most of them are natives and have a rights to their land.

[nomoneynoworries]

Imagine if that had happened to a different country.Fatwah declared,riots in the street.

[Sentientbeing09]

I cant imagine any other country even reporting this.

Its just more right-wing Israeli navel gazing.