"The 2007 ISO Palestinian entry was 'Palestinian Occupied Territory', while in 2013, this was officially changed to the 'State of Palestine', rather than the more commonly depoliticized formula, 'Palestinian Authority'."

Paris, 3 January 2019

In a letter to the Geneva-based International Standardization Organization (ISO) Secretary, José Baltar, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, requested to learn the procedure by which the ISO registers the name of member-countries.

"Our members have noted that formulas used in pre-defined country lists prepared for airlines, travel and sales outlets differ from those of ISO"...."For example, FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) appears in ISO despite its identity as claimed by its government is 'Macedonia'," stated Samuels.

The Centre noted that "ISO apparently has no entry for 'Tibetan Chinese Occupation' nor 'Northern Cyprus as Turkish Occupied'. On the other hand, from 2007, ISO's Palestinian entry was 'Palestinian Occupied Territory', while in 2013, this was 'officially changed' to the 'State of Palestine', rather than the more commonly depoliticized formula, 'Palestinian Authority'."

"Please inform us as to the requirements and procedure for such ISO inscriptions, especially in regard to territories without defined borders or sovereignty in highly politicized conflicts."