Google has renamed its Palestinian homepage “Palestine”, after previously calling it “Palestinian Territories”, saying they were following the lead of the United Nations (UN).
The UN’s General Assembly gave Palestine “non-member observer state” status in November despite opposition from Israel and the United States.
Israel argues the borders of Palestine have not yet been agreed, but Google in a statement to the BBC said: “We’re changing the name ‘Palestinian Territories’ to ‘Palestine’ across our products. We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries.
“In this case, we are following the lead of the UN, ICANN [the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers], ISO [International Organisation for Standardisation] and other international organisations.”
The name appears in English and Arabic on the homepage, with the Palestinian Authority (PA) welcoming the move.
Sabri Saidam, advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told the BBC: “This is a step in the right direction, a timely step and one that encourages others to join in and give the right definition and name for Palestine instead of Palestinian territories.
“Most of the traffic that happens now happens in the virtual world and this means putting Palestine on the virtual map as well as on the geographic maps.”
