{"id":121418,"date":"2018-11-05T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=121418"},"modified":"2018-11-01T16:10:38","modified_gmt":"2018-11-01T16:10:38","slug":"how-google-wipes-palestine-off-the-map","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/11\/how-google-wipes-palestine-off-the-map\/","title":{"rendered":"How Google Wipes Palestine Off the Map"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google’s dedication to Israel’s occupation can be seen in its maps and its refusal to recognise the reality of Israel\u2019s apartheid system for Palestinians.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

httpv:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BaA_MDMWakI<\/p>\n

30 Oct 2018 – <\/em>Like the other Silicon Valley monopolies<\/a>, Google habitually takes the side of Israeli occupation and war crimes in Palestine \u2013 the very term Palestine is not used by their highly influential maps app.<\/p>\n

A new report by a Palestinian human rights group<\/a> last month exposed the depths of Google\u2019s dedication to the Israeli occupation.<\/p>\n

With a known history documented back more than 3,200 years, the name \u201cPalestine\u201d is the only term continuously used for the entire territory of the country lying between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.<\/p>\n

Palestine is the most historically accurate term. But since 1948<\/a>, when Zionist militias expelled the majority of the Palestinian population from the country by force, a new state, \u201cIsrael\u201d, was established.<\/p>\n

That state has never declared its borders.<\/p>\n

Consequentially, when speaking about \u201cIsrael\u201d it is unclear exactly what territory is being referred to. But Zionists of both the right and the \u201cleft\u201d commonly claim the entire historic territory of Palestine as the \u201cLand of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new report, by 7amleh<\/a> (Hamleh), a Palestinian organisation advocating online rights, details how Google seems to almost go out of its way to eradicate the reality of Palestinian life.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Google came under fire from Palestinians on social media<\/a> when the terms \u201cWest Bank\u201d and \u201cGaza\u201d disappeared from Google Maps. Google said that the removal of these terms was down to a glitch and that they had never used the word Palestine in the first place.<\/p>\n

(The West Bank and Gaza Strip are regions of Palestine that are important, since they represent the remaining Palestinian territories which Israel failed to occupy in 1948. In 1967<\/a>, however, Israel took over those too.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough its mapping and labelling,\u201d the 7amleh report explains, \u201cone can deduce that Google Maps recognises the existence of Israel, with Jerusalem as its capital, but not Palestine.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are further aspects of the way Google has wiped Palestinian life off the map though. As the 7amleh report maps in some detail, Palestinian villages in the Naqab (Negev desert) deemed \u201cunrecognised\u201d by Israel (inside of what is sometimes termed \u201cIsrael proper\u201d \u2013 the territories of Palestine occupied in 1948) are not properly mapped by Google.<\/p>\n

These villages are only visible in Google Maps \u201cwhen zooming in very closely,\u201d the report explains, \u201cbut otherwise appear to be non-existent. This means that when looking at Google Maps, these villages appear to be not there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report details how small Israeli villages are \u201cdisplayed even when zoomed-out, while unrecognised Palestinian Bedouin villages, regardless of their size are only visible when zooming in very closely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel Demolishes Al-Araqeeb for 135th Time, Arrests Residents<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is despite the fact that there \u201care in total 46 Bedouin villages in the Naqab, the majority of which existed before Israel\u2019s creation in 1948. Some claim to have existed since the 7th century.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel has repeatedly attempted to physically remove these villages, but has repeatedly failed, thanks to the resistance of the Palestinians who live there, and thanks also to national <\/a>and international solidarity shown to those villages.<\/p>\n

Their Israeli (lack of) status as \u201cunrecognised\u201d also means that the state refuses to connect the villages to basic services like water and electricity \u2013 despite the fact that nearby Israeli-Jewish settlements are given all the support possible.<\/p>\n

As Basma Abu-Qwaider, one Palestinian Naqab villager, explains in the report:<\/p>\n

Google Maps acts in a discriminatory manner towards the unrecognised village the same [way] as the Israeli government does. Google ignores the existence of these villages just like Israel and for me if you do not exist on the map it means that you are invisible and that\u2019s exactly what Israel wants us to be.<\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This solidarity with Israeli racism expressed by Google\u2019s helpful attitude towards Israel\u2019s wiping of Palestinians quite literally off the map extends across the 1967 \u201cGreen Line\u201d ceasefire boundary.<\/p>\n

Palestinian villages even within the \u201cWest Bank\u201d area of the Jordan Valley are not properly mapped by Google either. The report documents that while Israeli settlements \u201ccan be seen when looking at the larger area of the map\u201d some Palestinian villages are only visible when zoomed in \u2013 and even that only as a result of pressure being put on by a human rights organisation.<\/p>\n

Google also refuses to recognise or map the reality of Israel\u2019s apartheid roads system for Palestinians.<\/p>\n

Khan Al-Ahmar Resident: \u2018We Are Imprisoned Here\u2019<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As part of Israel\u2019s ongoing settler-colonisation of Palestine, large parts of the West Bank \u2013 which is ruled by Israeli military decree \u2013 are prohibited access for Palestinians. Many roads are reserved for the use of Jews only.<\/p>\n

Despite the illegality of these practices under international law, Google\u2019s route-planning apps do not designate Israeli settlements in the West Bank as illegal.<\/p>\n

7amleh\u2019s report concludes: \u201cGoogle Maps, as the largest global mapping and route planning service, has the power to influence global public opinion and therefore bears the responsibility to abide by international human rights standards and to offer a service that reflects the Palestinian reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google should be compelled to end its complicity with Israeli racism and apartheid.<\/p>\n

_____________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist living in London who writes about Palestine and the Middle East. He has been visiting Palestine since 2004 and is originally from south Wales. He writes for the award-winning Palestinian news site<\/em> The Electronic Intifada where he is an associate editor and also a weekly column for the Middle East Monitor<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This work by <\/em>Middle East Monitor<\/a> is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. If the image(s) bear our credit, this license also applies to them. <\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 middleeastmonitor.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

30 Oct 2018 – Google’s dedication to Israel’s occupation can be seen in its maps and its refusal to recognise the reality of Israel\u2019s apartheid system for Palestinians. Google should be compelled to end its complicity with Israeli racism and apartheid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":121419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}