BEIRUT, Lebanon — You wouldn’t think Yoda would cause such a problem, but a social studies textbook had to be pulled because of the green Jedi.
It was all because of a photo mistake, and no one knows how it happened.
The photo in question shows Yoda sitting next to the former king of Saudi Arabia, King Faisal, The New York Times reported.
The image was created by artist Abdullah Al Shehri. He used a real photo of King Faisal attending the signing of the United Nations Charter in 1945 and added Yoda to the historic photo.
Shehri said that he had nothing to do with his image being published in the book, but said that his art was inspired by a real-life event. While looking through archives of the Middle East, mingled with photos of war and refugees, he found one that showed Egyptian president Anwar Sadat meeting Mickey Mouse. Shehri said he was inspired to create other similar photos, adding pop culture icons to photographs, the paper reported.
Shehri’s art has been shown in galleries in Dubai, Houston and Aspen.
He said he had no idea that the Yoda photo was in the book until his mother, who is a teacher, saw the book and texted her son asking if it was his photo.
The Saudi education minister took to Twitter to apologize and the books in question have been pulled. New copies are currently being printed. A committee is trying to find out who put the photo of Yoda and the king into the book in the first place, The Times reported.