Following charges of anti-Semitism, Australian stationery chain Typo pulled a line of globes that named Palestine but omitted Israel, the Guardian reported.
Israel and 12 other countries were represented by a number on the map and not their names. Pro-Israel advocates took to the store’s Facebook page to protest Typo’s globe “that has wiped Israel from the face of the earth.”
Typo said in its defense that Israel had been omitted “purely because there wasn’t enough space to include the name.”
However, two hours later the company said that it would remove the globes from sale and halt all future production.
“Typo is not removing any country from the globe. We made the decision to recall the current globes from sale as we are sourcing new artwork from our supplier that has every country marked on it but with no need for a key. All countries will remain on the map, the key will not,” it said.
“We never intended to offend anyone with this product.”
The chain’s decision to halt production led to boycott threats by Palestinian advocates who flooded the store’s Facebook page with angry messages.
The fury ended up on other, more benign posts on Typo’s Facebook, including one that advertised a backpack with the slogan, “I just took the road less traveled … and now I’m lost!”
Included in the replies were: “Could you be lost because you don’t know how to use a map. Use the correct one with Palestine and it will help!”
“The road less traveled is one that DOESN’T bow down to Zionist sentiment,” another user wrote.