Did Google Really Erase Palestine from Their Maps?

If we watch the Aj+ Video that was posted on Facebook, the video reveals that there is no sign of Palestine anywhere on Google Maps.

After the video went viral across Facebook, they later on updated their video’s description, where they provided their audience with the following text:
“Correction: A March 2016 petition asked Google to “Put Palestine On Your Maps.” A Google spokesperson stated “there has never been a ‘Palestine’ label on Google Maps, however we discovered a bug that removed the labels for ‘West Bank’ and ‘Gaza Strip’. We’re working quickly to bring these labels back to the area.”

On average, users utilize Google Maps more than a billion times each week combined. Google Maps is one of the world’s largest and most renown sources of geographic data. This also happens to be the first resource in which several people resort to when searching for a location.

The Palestinian Journalists posted to their website on August 3rd, “The Forum of Palestinian Journalists condemns the crime carried out by Google in deleting the name of Palestine, and calls for Google to rescind its decision and apologize to the Palestinian people.” They later go on stating more in their post “…The move is designed to falsify history, geography as well as the Palestinian people’s right to their homeland, and [is] a failed attempt to tamper with the memory of Palestinians and Arabs as well as the world.”

Zak Martin started a project on this subject, Change.Org. We can see the map view views defaults towards a demarcated, however still unlabeled region that stretches from the Hebron (located in the south) all the way to Jenin (which is in the north). It also stretches from Jerusalem and carries over to the Jordanian borders.

You can click on any of the cities within this region. And if you did click any city, Google notes it as Palestinian. Even the Wikipedia-Sourced Box that pops up with the description, still describes Palestine as “de sure sovereign state.” This has been the same since 2013, which happens to be when Google altered their labels from Palestinian Territories to Palestine.

Israel and Palestine have been common enemies since 1947, when the United Nations had awarded the Jewish people a state of their own, which is nested on the Palestinian grounds. However, the UN does not recognize the Palestinian State as a government official nation. Nor does it recognize several other countries in North America and Europe. Oddly enough though, the majority of countries in South America, Africa and Asia do recognize Palestine.

However, if we look at the current map below, we do not see Palestine:

Below is a YouTube video in which places Google directly into the spotlight.

Update: Google Says, It Did Not Delete ‘Palestine’ From Its Maps: “There has never been a ‘Palestine’ label on Google Maps, however we discovered a bug that removed the labels for ‘West Bank’ and ‘Gaza Strip,’ ” the company said in a statement. “We’re working quickly to bring these labels back to the area.”

Sources: Educate Inspire Change, Aj+ Facebook, FPJS, Change.Org, YouTube, Google Maps.

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