Recently, social media has been buzzing with claims that Google removed Palestine from its maps, sparking debates and concerns about the tech giant’s stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict. But did Google actually remove Palestine from Maps?
When searching for "Palestine" on Google Maps, the map zooms in on the Israel-Palestine region. Both the Gaza Strip and West Bank territories are labelled and separated by dotted lines, but there is no label for Palestine.
This absence of a Palestine label on the map has led many users to believe that Google removed it. However, this is not true. We will uncover the actual facts in the following sections. But first, turn off the Google AI overview.
Did Google Remove Palestine from Maps?
No, Google did not remove Palestine from Maps, as there was no Palestine label to begin with. Google states it doesn’t label the borders because there isn’t an international consensus on where the Palestinian borders are located.
Similar to Google Maps, Apple Maps also doesn’t label Palestine. When performing a general search for “Palestine” on Apple Maps, it zooms in on the region but doesn’t label anything as Palestine. The same is the case with Bing Maps.
Why Doesn’t Google Maps Label Palestine?
Google uses the overall consensus of nations and standard cartographic practices to depict countries and borders. Because there is no international consensus on the borders of Palestine, Google does not label it on their maps.
The rumours suggesting that Google removed Palestine from the map to support Israel in the Israel-Palestine conflict are completely false. This is merely a baseless claim created to generate post engagement and go viral.
With that, we conclude our explainer on whether Google removed Palestine from the map. We hope you found a detailed answer here. Before heading off, be sure to explore our other Google Maps guides, including how to draw a radius.