(JNS) The Tel Aviv Municipality was criticized by the Israeli Education Ministry this week for producing and placing in schools an unauthorized and “prejudicial” map of the state.
The map shows the Green Line, which sets out areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, which according to the ministry is not permitted.
The ministry called the map “amateurish and unprofessional, invented by the Tel Aviv Municipality,” Ynet reported. “This is reflected in the cartography and prejudicial use of the term ‘sovereignty line,’” the ministry added, according to the report.
The map was “not submitted for approval by the Ministry of Education, and therefore it is not approved for study, not even for use as a poster on the walls,” the report continued.
“The only entity authorized to determine the maps of Israel is the Survey of Israel, [the country’s mapping center],” the ministry stated.
In response, the Tel Aviv Municipality said the maps had been produced after a “serious and in-depth” two-year process, and that it had contacted the ministry and the Survey of Israel to request a map and data but “none were provided,” Ynet reported.
David Elhayani, chairman of the Yesha Council, an umbrella organization representing local communities in Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley, said in a statement: “We are sorry that the Tel Aviv Municipality and its leader have proven how disconnected the first Hebrew city is from the people of Israel.