Whose Cave is it Anyway?

Qumran Cave

Why are British upset with Israeli Tourism Ministry?

British Advertising Standards Authority criticizes Israel for ad featuring a photo of Qumran Caves saying it misleads reader into thinking site is located within Green Line

14 April 2008
by Danny Sadeh

The British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has criticized the Israeli Tourism Ministry for an advertisement featuring a photo of the Qumran Caves.

The ASA is an independent organization founded by advertisers "in order to keep advertising truthful."

The authority approached the Tourism Ministry bureau in the UK asking to remove an advertisement featuring a photo of Qumran Caves under the heading: "It takes six hours to cross Israel. Imagine what you can experience in seven days."

The reason, as stated by the ASA: The advertisement misleads the reader into thinking that Qumran Caves are located within the Green Line, while they are actually located in the Palestinian territories.

A senior tourism official said Sunday that the ASA continues to demonstrate its anti-Israeli approach displayed in Britain over the past few months.

According to him,"Representatives of the Palestinian Tourism Ministry feature a map of Palestine which shows all of Israel's regions, including Ben-Gurion Airport, as Palestine's major airport, but the British never complained about that."

The Tourism Ministry said in response that following the request, the photo of the Qumran Caves has been replaced with a photo of Masada until further clarification.
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Opinion

Tourism Ad Misunderstanding

14 April 2008
By HRM Deborah

Technically, there is no longer a green line or territories, it is all Palestine and if the Jewish people had wished to run an ad showing the Qumran caves, they had every right to do so honestly.

It is thought this is just another case of people not necessarily keeping up with current political situations or another case of propaganda got in the way of reality and I say this with no disrespect to the British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), for this appears to be just a case of misunderstanding.

I think with the way things are changing so rapidly, many people are scratching their head and hope they get it right sometimes, especially with all the confusion these days in regards to rampant negative propaganda.

Furthermore, everyone in Palestine just came out of a long war and modern terminology of place’s and so forth is still in flux, as for the old, it always seems to stay the same.

As for an Anti-anything approach, this a sad state of affairs, because all people in reality should get along with each other and these people that do not choose to do so are in a sad state of affairs.

As for the people in Palestine, we are a people of three religions, with a growing love and respect for each other.