From Aljazeera
Popular American game show Jeopardy has been plunged into controversy after a contestant was told she had the wrong answer after identifying Jesus's place of birth, the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, as being in Palestine.
The incident took place in round one of the game broadcast on Friday, when Katie Needle was given the clue: "Built in the 300s A.D., the Church of the Nativity", under the category "Where's that Church?".
Needle, a retail supervisor, from Brooklyn, responded that it was in Palestine, but was told her answer was wrong.
One of the other two contestants, Jack McGuire, then buzzed in with the reply "Israel", which host Alex Trebek accepted as correct.
"This [jeopardy incident] just shows how normalised the occupation and cleansing of the Palestinian people from the historical record has become," Imraan Siddiqi, executive director of Council of American Islamic Relations Arizona chapter, told Al Jazeera.
James Zogby of Zogby Analytics, who is also a US public opinion pollster, said the incident was "an insult to history, reality, the thousands of oppressed Palestinians of Bethlehem".
Zogby recently wrote: "Suffering under Israeli military occupation since 1967, Bethlehem has slowly been strangled. It has lost most of its land to settlement construction. It is hemmed in by a 30-foot-high concrete wall, stripped of its resources, and denied access to external markets."
The United Nations says Israeli settlements in Bethlehem and other parts of occupied West Bank are illegal, and has called them a "flagrant violation" of international law.
However, fans of the show noted that following an ad break Ms Needle, who ultimately won the episode, appeared to have been reimbursed the $200 she had lost out on through her answer – although no explanation was given for the decision.
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