RCS Sport has removed references to ‘West Jerusalem’ from its official maps and route information for the 2018 Giro d’Italia after the Israeli government threatened to withdraw its support for next year’s Grande Partenza in protest.
The 2018 Giro gets underway on May 4 with a 9.7-kilometre time trial that takes part in the western sector of Jerusalem. When details of the three opening stages were unveiled in Israel in September, RCS Sport’s maps referred to the city simply as ‘Jerusalem,’ but the maps released during the presentation of the full Giro route on Wednesday listed the stage town as ‘West Jerusalem.’
Israel has occupied East Jerusalem since seizing it during the Six-Day War in 1967. The country later annexed it, although the international community has never recognised that administrative move. Israel now claims Jerusalem as its undivided capital, but Palestinians believe East Jerusalem has been occupied illegally and hope to establish it as the capital of their future state.
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In a strongly-worded statement to AFP shortly after Wednesday’s Giro presentation, Israel’s sports minister Miri Regev and tourism minister Yariy Levin claimed that RCS Sport’s use of the term West Jerusalem was "a breach of the agreements with the Israeli government” and described Jerusalem as “Israel’s capital [where] there is no east or west.”
“If the wording does not change, the Israeli government will not be a partner in the event," Regev and Levin concluded.
In a brief statement on Thursday morning, RCS Sport confirmed that it had removed references to West Jerusalem from its technical material relating to the 2018 Giro. The race website now lists the stage location as Jerusalem and not West Jerusalem.
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