French children’s magazine withdrawn for writing Israel’s not a ‘real country’
News editor for Youpi issues apology after admitting a 'mistake' that he will 'blame myself for all my life'
A French children’s magazine has been withdrawn from newsstands after it admitted a “mistake” in writing that Israel wasn’t a “real country”.
The news editor for Youpi, a magazine for children from five to eight, said the January issue was being removed from kiosk sales in France and Belgium after writing that Israel was among a few states in the world that aren’t “real countries”.
Bertrand Fichou said he humbly apologises for the mistake, adding: “I’ll blame myself for it all my life.”.
Aliza Bin Noun, the Israeli Ambassador to France tweeted a picture of the magazine’s cartoon, which said Israel wasn’t a real country. She said she was “shocked by this lie taught to children. Such rhetoric can only lead to anti-Zionism, inseparable from antisemitism as has been pointed out by the french President Emmanuel Macron”
Choquée par ce mensonge enseigné à des enfants. Une telle réthorique ne peut qu'inciter à l'antisionisme, indissociable de l'#antisemitisme comme l'a rappelé le Président français @EmmanuelMacron pic.twitter.com/X0KBrGfknl
— Aliza Bin Noun (@AlizaBinNoun) December 24, 2017
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