Jerusalem Without a Country

I'm surprised this story didn't get more coverage. I only stumbled upon it thanks to those handy Google alerts. So Monopoly is putting out a world edition and people get to vote on which countries and cities get placed on the board. These include Istanbul, Turkey; Cairo, Egypt; Paris, France; and Jerusalem.

Originally, Jerusalem was listed as part of Israel, but that caused a ruckus with Palestinian supporters who believe the city, or at least East Jerusalem, should be part of Palestine. In response, someone pulled the country name. This caught the attention of pro-Israel supporters who wanted to know why Jerusalem was the only city without a country. To appease everyone, Hasbro got rid of all the country names. Thus the boards would read: Istanbul, Cairo, Paris, Jerusalem, and so on.

While it's a smart move on Hasbro's part to please their customers, I still think it's unnecessary to not include ALL the countries' names. It is widely understood that Jerusalem is a disputed city so it makes sense to make it a country-less city.