The Israel Government Tourism Office is withdrawing a series of posters displayed in London Underground stations featuring a map that treats the occupied territories as part of Israel, after the advertisements were referred to the Advertising Standards Authority.

The yellow map makes no distinction between Israel and the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza.

The Palestinian Solidarity Campaign and Jews for Justice for Palestinians both complained to the ASA as well as to CBS Outdoor, which is responsible for the poster sites, and Transport for London (TfL), which said it received more than 600 complaints.

The poster, which had gone up on 108 sites and was due to go up on another 42 before it was pulled by IGTO, was part of the Think Israel campaign. Last year the ASA upheld a complaint about a magazine advertisement that was part of the same campaign because it implied that Qumran was in the state of Israel when in fact it is in the occupied West Bank. In its judgement, the ASA ruled that the advert should be withdrawn and said it was "concerned by ThinkIsrael.coms [sic] lack of response and apparent disregard for the [committee of advertising practice] code".

An ASA spokesman said it had received 342 complaints about the London Underground posters and it was currently assessing whether there were grounds for an investigation. He said the fact that the posters were being withdrawn would be taken into consideration but did not preclude an investigation.

A TfL spokesman said: "The Israel Ministry of Tourism has requested the removal of an advert that they had placed at selected stations on the Tube network." Neither the Israeli embassy in London or IGTO responded to theguardian.com requests for a comment.

Carole Regan, who is on the executive of the PSC, said: "It's not just insensitive, it's quite provocative. We are quite angry about it."

Dan Judelson, from JfJfP, said he thought the IGTO had been "stupid" to create such a poster so soon after the British airline BMI came under fire for omitting Israeli cities from electronic maps on flights from London to Tel Aviv. On that occasion, BMI blamed the previous owner of the planes for bowing to Arab sensitivities.

"It's absurd to behave in the same way [as BMI]. Maps are far from innocent tools," said Judelson.

The Syrian embassy also complained to TfL and CBS Outdoor, as well as to the Mayor of London and the UK Foreign Office, over the inclusion of the Golan Heights, seized from Syria in the 1967 six-day war and unilaterally annexed by Israel in 1981.

"It's an outrageous falsification of the facts and a violation of international law," said embassy spokesman Jihad Makdissi. "We have reminded everyone of the legal aspect as well as the moral aspect."

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