In various versions of Google Maps, the word 'Palestine' has been deleted. The borders of what is Palestine is marked in grey, and the entire landmass is labelled 'Israel'
There are many who'd want to see the state of Palestine chalked off the map. Google seems to have obliged them. Some versions of Google Maps showed the entire territory as Israel with not a mention of Palestine.
Palestinian journalists have come together to denounce Google for deleting their state from Google Maps and merging it within Israel.
"It is part of an Israeli scheme to establish its name as a legitimate state for generations to come and abolish Palestine once and for all," said an official statement of the Palestinian Journalists’ Forum, reported Middle East Monitor.
The forum also claimed, “The move is also designed to falsify history and geography as well as the Palestinian people’s right to their homeland."
It is a failed attempt to tamper with the memory of Palestinians and Arabs, as well as the world, the statement added.
The forum pointed out that the Google’s action is "contrary to all international norms and conventions," and asked the search engine to re-think on its move.
Interestingly, Google is heavily invested in Israel and both its founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin happen to be Jewish. Google Suggest, the autocomplete search tool was developed in google's labs in Israel. Page and Brin are wildly popular in the country.
Capturing the special relationship the duo have with the country Dan Senor and Saul Singer in their book Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Miracle wrote: “The Google founders strode into the hall, and the crowd roared. The students could not believe their eyes. “Sergey Brin and Larry Page . . . in our high school!” one of the students proudly recalled. What “had brought the world’s most famous tech duo to this Israeli high school, of all places?
The answer came as soon as Sergey Brin spoke. “Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys,” he said in Russian, his choice of language prompting spontaneous applause. “I emigrated from Russia when I was six,” Brin continued. “I went to the United States. Similar to you, I have standard Russian-Jewish parents. My dad is a math professor. They have a certain attitude about studies. And I think I can relate that here, because I was told that your school recently got seven out of the top ten places in a math competition throughout all Israel.”
This time the students clapped for their own achievement. “But what I have to say,” Brin continued, cutting through the applause, “is what my father would say—‘What about the other three?”
0 comments:
Post a Comment