An AFP map of the Middle East published on June 7, 2017, that excluded Israel. Photo: Screenshot.

A leading Jewish human rights organization has called on Agence France-Presse (AFP) to conduct an urgent internal inquiry after it published a map of the Middle East on its Twitter feed that excluded Israel.

In a map detailing the Arab countries that have cut links with Qatar over the emirate’s ties with the Iranian regime and its support for terrorist groups in the region, Israel’s territory was visible on the map, but not its name. Both the West Bank and Gaza were specifically pinpointed, as was non-Arab nation Turkey.

https://twitter.com/AFP/status/871749708972163072

Shimon Samuels — the European representative of the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) — said that “inaction on this issue will be construed as an AFP endorsement of Iranian-declared policy to exterminate the Jewish state.”

In a letter to Agence France-Presse (AFP) Chairman and CEO Emmanuel Hoog, Samuels wrote, “We can only hope that this was the act of an antisemitic lone-wolf or a budding jihadist employee.”

“When Iran first wiped the State of Israel off the map, this was defined by many as genocidal intent,” Samuels wrote, before accusing AFP of committing “the same outrage.”

The SWC called for “an AFP investigation, condemnation and immediate dismissal of the perpetrator.”