Nations dropped from Monopoly site after Jerusalem fuss

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Monopoly, the world's best-selling board game, is going global. A simple idea, substituting the iconic properties of the original game with hallmark cities of the world.

In this celebration of capitalism, would-be moguls could buy up properties in cities such as Moscow, Russia; Tokyo, Japan and Jerusalem, Israel.

Wait. Nix that last one -- at least the Israel part.

Given the white-hot controversy over Israel -- the world's most fought-over piece of real estate -- should the board game refer to "Jerusalem, Israel" even though Palestinians say Jerusalem will be the capital of any future Palestinian state? Should it say "Jerusalem, Palestine?"

Instead of rolling the dice, parent company Hasbro is taking the middle ground.

The company is letting people vote on its Web site for which cities to include in the new game -- "Dublin, Ireland" for example. It recently removed "Israel" after "Jerusalem" and then eventually removed all of the country names.

Hasbro told The Associated Press that a mid-level employee decided on her own to take out "Israel" after pro-Palestinian groups and bloggers complained -- sparking even more protests from the other side.

"It was never our intention to print any countries on the final boards and any online tags were merely used as a geographic reference to help with city selection," Hasbro said in a written statement. "We would never want to enter into any political debate. We apologize for any upset this has caused our Monopoly fans."

Taking that stance may be Hasbro's "Get of jail free" card, allowing it to sidestep a sticky political situation that's anything but fun and games.

Sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims, the Holy City has sparked wars since the crusades and beyond. It's no different today, even in the world of Monopoly.

An Israeli lobbying group, One Jerusalem, is driving an Internet campaign that pushed the city to 5th place in the Monopoly vote -- guaranteeing Jerusalem a spot on the board -- before Hasbro made the leaderboard a secret to add mystery to the final days of voting. Watch why group is pushing the issue »

Internet voting on the top 20 cities ends Thursday, February 28. Two wild card cities will be added later on.

One Jerusalem's goal is to solidify Jewish claims on the city shared by three major religions.

"If it appears on the Monopoly board and everyone is buying and selling and renting and trading over Jerusalem," said the group's Yechiel Lieter. "Surely, that will enhance the consciousness of Israel's monopoly over Jerusalem." E-mail to a friend

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