A controversial multi-page advertising campaign published by Israel’s Ministry of Tourism on the Los Angeles Times website has sparked scrutiny over its deliberate cartographic erasure of occupied Palestinian territories, while marketing the country as a tranquil, inviting destination for U.S. travelers. Titled *Israel: Land of Creation*, the campaign centers on an interactive nine-day travel itinerary that lets users click through Israeli cities to access information about local history and cultural landmarks. The map included in the ad depicts all territory stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea as part of Israel, with no acknowledgment whatsoever of Palestinian-populated areas. Notable omissions include the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip – territories the United Nations formally recognizes as occupied under international law, and which are widely framed as the core territory for a future independent Palestinian state under the two-state solution. Beyond cartographic erasure, the ad also fails to mention that many of the advertised Israeli cities were constructed on the land of destroyed and displaced Palestinian villages and towns. The ad paints a deliberately idyllic picture of travel across Israel, with vivid descriptions of Tel Aviv’s popular coastal lifestyle: “Start by getting oriented. Rothschild Boulevard, the White City’s Bauhaus architecture, the pull west toward the Mediterranean. The beaches here are central to daily life rather than an amenity. You’ll notice people swimming before work, playing matkot on the sand, and treating the shoreline as an extension of their neighbourhood. Plan to walk south toward Jaffa before sundown on the first evening.” For the route between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the ad notes the trip takes roughly 40 minutes by car, framing it as a seamless journey across time. What it does not mention, however, is that for Palestinian residents, the same trip requires navigating Israeli military checkpoints and segregated road networks, stretching the travel time to two hours or more. The ad further integrates unambiguously occupied lands into its tourism branding: it refers to the Old City, located in occupied East Jerusalem, as integral Israeli territory, and promotes wine tourism in the occupied Golan Heights – a territory seized by Israel from Syria in 1967, which the post-war Syrian government still claims as its own, and which former U.S. President Donald Trump controversially recognized as Israeli in an unrivaled unilateral move. In the country’s north, the ad describes encounters with “Jesus’ mysticism” and a “thriving artists’ community”, making no mention of the ongoing conflict and instability that shapes daily life across the broader region. This carefully curated image of peace and normalcy stands in stark contrast to the current reality: Israel is currently engaged in active conflict across at least seven regional fronts, carrying out near-daily airstrikes on Gaza, ramping up restrictive measures and raids in the occupied West Bank, and conducting cross-border military strikes in Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Iran, and Lebanon. The marketing push also comes amid a heated domestic Israeli political context, just weeks ahead of the 27 October national election. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spent much of his current campaign leaning into a narrative of existential national threat to mobilize his base, making the campaign’s depiction of a calm, tourist-friendly Israel a notable dissonance. This $6.5 million tourism campaign, dubbed “I am Israel”, was first announced in June by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, with an explicit focus on attracting travelers from North America. At the time of its launch, the *Jerusalem Post* reported that the campaign’s core goal was to “reconnect the country to people’s hearts and make it clear that tourist sites are safe and open”.