Britain bans Israeli travel ad

An advertisement for travel to Israel was banned in Britain as misleading for showing sites that included the Western Wall. The ad, part of an Israeli Government Tourist Office campaign, said that a tourist could “travel the entire length of Israel in six hours,” and showed pictures of attractions such as the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock.

The British Advertising Standards Authority received a complaint claiming that the advertising, which appeared in publications and on posters, was misleading since the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock are located in eastern Jerusalem and are “part of the occupied territories.”

The Tourism Ministry responded that the present legal status of Jerusalem was irrelevant unless there was an unnecessary attempt to “interpret the straightforward message of the ad in a manner that went beyond what consumers were likely to understand from the ad.” (JTA)