Why did Google remove Palestine from maps - magirtopcu
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Shihan
Maybe because there is no country called "Palestine". There is the
"Palestinian Authority" that rules over the Westbank and used to rule over the
Gaza Strip before Hamas took control over it.

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pastProlog
If that is the case, why don't Palestinians have representatives in the
Knesset?

Why do Israelis claim Israel is the "only democracy in the Middle East" if
only Jews living in the West Bank can vote?

Israel can't claim it has autonomy over the West Bank _and_ that Israel is
also a democracy as well. It is one or the other.

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edanm
You're taking a complicated issue and trying to turn it into a soundbite.

Why does the US claim it's a democracy if Mexicans can't vote in the US, even
if they live there? It's because they're not citizens. Similarly, Palestinians
living in the West Bank are not citizens of Israel. Other people, including
many Arabs, that _are_ citizens of Israel, _do_ vote.

I'm not saying you're necessarily wrong btw - there's a lot of valid questions
around whether it's OK or not that Palestinians are not citizens of Israel
even though Israel controls their land (e.g. right of return, the idea that
Israel should've annexed the land, etc). I'm just pointing out that what you
bring up as a rebuke of Israel really isn't.

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pastProlog
Comparing an 80 year old Palestinian in Nablus whose family has been in Nablus
for centuries with a Mexican who moved to the US five years ago is silly.
Also, there was a 2000 amnesty bill, so it is Mexicans who chose to move to
the US within fifteen years in that category. Also, a Jew who moves into a
settlement next to Nablus can vote.

You can say Palestine is another country - but then why are settlements and
the IDF there? Why does Israel fight UN bills saying Palestine is a country?

~~~
edanm
My point wasn't to make a direct comparison to Mexicans in the US - my point
was that it's citizenship that makes the difference, not physical location. As
long as they're not citizens, it makes sense that they don't vote. There's a
totally valid discussion around whether they should be citizens, but that's a
separate discussion.

"You can say Palestine is another country - but then why are settlements and
the IDF there?"

Well, I think the official position of Israel is that it isn't a separate
country, it's a territory that's occupied by Israel, but that Israel chooses
not to officially annex. I don't love this arrangement, and I certainly don't
like that there continue to be settlements there, but like most people, I
don't have an easy solution to this situation. Annexing the lands and turning
the Palestinians into citizens means effectively destroying the entire point
of Israel's existence (a country for the Jewish religion/nationality).

I think the majority of people today consider a two-state solution the only
true option - make it actually another country, at which point, as you point
out, there can't be settlements there and the IDF would have to completely
stay out. But while this is probably a desired situation, it's not the
situation _now_.

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duncan_bayne
Oh, man.

I used to work at Lonely Planet a few years ago. This sort of thing came up
all the time.

Depending upon jurisdiction, there are even legal requirements about where
borders lie, what you call different territories, etc.

And of course these requirements vary between jurisdictions. So a map that you
can put in a book to sell in country X will have to be replaced with a
different map in order to sell in country Y.

The Persian Gulf is the example that springs to mind, but IIRC there were many
others too.

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em3rgent0rdr
According to [http://opennews.kzhu.io/map-
disputes/](http://opennews.kzhu.io/map-disputes/) servers in different
countries may see different maps based on geopolitical disputes. To be fair,
Google should respond to queries from IP's in the state of Palestine with a
map that has Palestine properly labeled.

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gonvaled
Arguably not only IPs from Palestine, but IPs from any other State recognizing
the State of Palestine.

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aaron695
They didn't.

[http://english.alarabiya.net/en/media/digital/2016/08/09/Onl...](http://english.alarabiya.net/en/media/digital/2016/08/09/Online-
outrage-after-Google-wipes-off-Palestine-from-its-map.html)

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umren
it's simple

Google is USA corporation, Israel don't recognize Palestine, Israel is USA
ally on middle east.

~~~
cttet
USA don't recognize Taiwan, though...

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em3rgent0rdr
At least google maps has a dotted line between west bank and rest of Israel.
Similarly for Gaza and Western Sahara. But interestingly I don't see any word
labeling the West Bank region of Palestine.

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blahedo
I'm not a regular Google maps user, so I'll ask: does someone have screenshots
of what Google maps used to display for occupied Palestine? I'd love to see a
side-by-side.

~~~
em3rgent0rdr
[https://www.google.com/maps/place/Palestine/](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Palestine/)

~~~
em3rgent0rdr
on the left side of screen has:

"Quick facts The State of Palestine, also known simply as Palestine, is a de
jure sovereign state in the Middle East that is recognized by 136 UN members
and since 2012 has a status of a non-member observer state ...Wikipedia
President:Mahmoud Abbas Capital:Ramallah Prime minister:Rami Hamdallah"

The map is centered around East Jerusalem. No label of "Palestine" on the
actual map. But there is a label for "Israel" and "Gaza". And there are dotted
lines between Israel proper and the West Bank & Gaza.

