This happened in September, but it’s a slow news day, so we figured we’ll run it despite the age limit. There was a bit of a scandal on the most popular show in the Arab world, “Arab Idol, ” when it displayed the map of the home country of two of contestants: Israel, WND reported.
The two singers were Arab citizens of Israel, both living in Galilee, which means there was nothing wrong with that map factually. Still, Saudi MBC-TV had to apologize to its hundreds millions of viewers for the dsiplay, because, let’s face it, there’s no such thing as Israel, and that map should have been titled “Palestine.”
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Of course, there’s no such thing as “Palestine” in geographic or any other reality, either. The name was invented by the Romans in 132, after the Jewish rebellion of Bar Kochva. They replaced the name Judea with Syria Palaestina, and the name Jerusalem with Aelia Capitolina, the city of Jupiter. Don’t ask…
MBC-TV was threatened with boycotts, including ”Shut Down Arab Idol, ” “Palestine is Arab, not Hebrew” and “Together Against Arab Idol.”
So much for peaceful co-existence…
The two Israeli Arab singers, Manal Moussa, 25, and Haitham Khalailah, 24, were among contestants from all over the Arab world when the show launched its new season in mid-September, WMD reported.
Even as the map identifying the two contestants’ home country, the network was flooded with demands to remove the offensive name Israel and to apologize to all the Arabs, wherever they may be, for the “serious offense.”
In the apology, MBC insisted Israel appeared on the map duw to “technical error.” It immediately replaced it with the more appropriate Palestine.
As you can see in the video below, the singers are now are described on the show as Palestinians, and there is no mention they are citizens of Israel.
So, now, when the problem was eliminated, we can enjoy the singing…
