Egypt Removes Israel from Map in Textbook, Sparks Outrage in Tel Aviv After Image Circulates

Israel has been angered by a map in a new Egyptian high school textbook for the baccalaureate program, which shows the State of Palestine along Egypt’s eastern border and makes no mention of the Jewish state.

In the circulating image published by "Cairo 24," one page of the textbook displays a map with Egypt shown alongside Palestine occupying the entire geographic extent of historic Palestine, adjacent to Jordan and Saudi Arabia, with no reference to Israel whatsoever.

Israel’s Channel 14 covered the map, calling it "raising questions in light of the peace agreement and mutual recognition between the two countries," urging the Foreign Ministry to act "to correct this mistake," according to the report.

The baccalaureate is a new program designed to graduate high school students before university entry, introduced this year to replace the traditional "General Secondary Education" certificate.

The Israeli channel noted that the map "holds particular significance given that Egypt has maintained peace and diplomatic relations with Israel since 1979," adding that "this should concern the Foreign Ministry, and Israel must clearly express its firm rejection of it."

The channel also stated that "the appearance of a map omitting Israel raises questions about how political reality in the region is being presented to students," though it added that "it cannot be legally confirmed based solely on the publication of the map that this constitutes a blatant violation of the Camp David Accords."

It continued that "such a conclusion requires examining the official status of the map, the entity that produced it, the body that approved it, and relevant treaty provisions; moreover, asserting that Israel’s removal was intentional cannot be proven merely by its publication," emphasizing the need for further investigation before concluding that the Egyptian government deliberately omitted Israel from educational maps.