A group of Arab social media users have condemned the removal of Palestine from online google maps.
The reactions shared across social media platforms on Thursday July 16, 2020, have gone viral, lamenting that the label for Palestine has been removed on both Apple and Google maps.
Some Twitter users demanded that Google add ‘Palestine’ back to its maps as it appeared Palestine was removed from both Google and Apple maps.
Some social media users shared screenshots of Google maps showing landmarks of the map with labels for ‘West Bank’, ‘Gaza Strip’ and ‘Israel’.
The Palestine label has been removed in the screenshots that went viral and people have therefore expressed their displeasure over the Palestine’s removal from Google maps.
When users raised the concern in 2016, Google answered that the name Palestine has never existed on its maps.
“There has never been a ‘Palestine’ label on Google maps,” a Google official said.
Another Google official said there was a track application that deleted all label for ‘West Gaza’ and ‘Gaza’.
She, however, said Google was working quickly to bring the labels back to the area.
Israel President Benjamin Netanyahu has recently pledged to extend the country’s territory to cover parts of the occupied West Bank.
The decision has sparked criticism worldwide as many countries called the move ‘human rights violation’.
