Back in 2016, the #PalestineIsHere was a trending topic when supporters of the Palestinian cause condemned Google for supposedly removing the word “Palestine” from Google Maps.
Following the Hamas' surprise attack on Israel, there has been a renewed interest about this, and people began asking why there isn't any Palestine on the popular web mapping platform and consumer application.
Google only says Israel. No Palestine here or there.
The conflict between Israel and Palestine is such a contentious topic that the very name of the respective nations has sparked debate.
"Care to point out the location of Palestine?" said a user on Facebook, captioning a screenshot of Israel on Google Maps. "America doesn’t recognize (Palestine) as a nation," said another.
Pro-Palestinians aren't happy about this.
"Palestine is no longer a place according to Google — ethnic cleansing, murder, land theft and corporate conspiracy, all done in Israel's name," said a user who sides with Palestine.
"Google Maps deleted Palestine from its maps? I'm so angry I have no words," said another.
The hashtag #FreePalestine has again began trending after tweets about the omission of Palestine from mapping services gained traction online.
Public figures have also began questioning about Google's decision to "remove" Palestine from its maps, and why Google is making it seems that it sides with Israel.
Since Google is an American company, people speculated that it sided with Israel because the U.S. does not officially recognize Palestine as a nation.
But what should be a matter of concern here is that, the issue is a bit more complex that just labeling, and a lot more difficult than many people could understand.
This is because Google Maps has never really mentioned where Palestine is.
Palestine was actually never on Google Maps to begin with.
According to Elizabeth Davidoff, Google’s communications manager, Palestine was never marked in the first place.
"There has never been a ‘Palestine’ label on Google Maps," she said.
When searching for "Palestine" on Google Maps, and when the app zooms in on the Israel-Palestine region, Israel is shown, and both the Gaza Strip and West Bank territories are labeled and separated by dotted lines.
Google shows no Palestine because there isn't any international consensus on where the Palestinian borders are located.
Because of this, Google said that it cannot label Palestine, even when Palestine is there.
Similarly, Apple Maps also doesn't label anything a Palestine, all for the same reason.
Before 2023 and 2016, a similar online uproar happened in 2011.
However, some people don't believe that.
They only believe that Google and Apple, both of which are American companies, despite their worldwide presence, would base their mapping applications on America's officially recognized global, geographical borders and nomenclature.
"Whether intentionally or otherwise, Google is making itself complicit in the Israeli government’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine," said one petition at Change.org.
After all, on maps, the name "Palestine" is usually associated with historic Palestine before the establishment of the Israeli state, and is not used in mainstream news outlets in the West.
Palestine is only recognized as an independent state by the United Nations and more than 135 of its members, but not recognized by the U.S.
Different maps providers do have different opinions about this.
Bing Maps, for example, identifies "Palestine" as the Gaza Strip, whereas MapQuest doesn't recognize Palestine.
Yandex Maps on the other hand, shows both Palestine and Israel.
It's worth noting though, that Google, Apple and some others, which are famous brands, don't conclude what's what on their own.
Their basemap data, which includes information of places and borders, as well as road networks, comes from a combination of third-party providers and public sources.
These companies cannot rely on their own resources to produce a comprehensive map. This means that the amount of data can vary from place to place, and biased at certain times.