10 agorot controversy

The 10 agorot controversy refers to a conspiracy theory[1][2] made public by Palestine Liberation Organization chairman Yasser Arafat's appearance at a specially convened session of the UN Security Council in Geneva on 25 May 1990.

At the session, Arafat claimed that the obverse design of an Israeli ten agorot coin showed a map of "Greater Israel" that represented Zionist expansionist goals.

In support of his claim that the 10 agorot coins displayed a Greater Israel, Arafat also quoted a 1989 paper by Gwyn Rowley of the University of Sheffield published in GeoJournal.

[3] As part of this inquiry, Rowley presented a map of the Middle East with a superimposed outline based on the embossed pattern of a contemporary 10 agorot coin.

M. Berkowicz, of the Department of Physical Geography, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem criticized Rowley's article in a subsequent paper also published by GeoJournal.