Friday, June 27, 2008

Google Attacks Israel


Google Earth Wiping Israel Off the Map -Andre Oboler

Virtual Israel, as represented by Google Earth, is littered with orange dots, many of which claim to represent "Palestinian localities evacuated and destroyed after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war."

Thus, Israel is depicted as a state born out of colonial conquest rather than the return of a people from exile. Each dot links to the "Palestine Remembered" site, where further information advancing this narrative can be obtained. [Thus,]those wishing to explore Israel in Google Earth are immediately taken to a politically motivated narrative unrelated to their quest.

Many of the claims staked out in Google Earth present misinformation, and sites known to be ruins in 1946 are claimed to be villages destroyed in 1948. Arab villages which still exist today are listed as sites of destruction.

Google Earth is creating a falsification of history.

Google should remove the narrative and treat Israel as it treats every other country on the globe. Google Earth should be ideology free and not serve as a platform for indoctrination or a campaign to wipe Israel off the virtual map.
(Institute for Contemporary Affairs/Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs)


UPDATES:

Google Earth View of Israel Highlights Palestinian "Nakba" -Stephanie Rubenstein

On Google Earth, the message "Nakba - The Palestinian Catastrophe" appears when users scroll over the orange dots that speckle locations across the entire map of Israel. "Israel is being specifically targeted.
(Jerusalem Post)

GOOD NEWS [August 31, '08]:

Anti-Israel Markings on Google Earth Now Filtered -Haviv Rettig

The default map of Israel on Google Earth no longer displays anti-Israel markings. Google was criticized in recent months for a series of orange markings overlaying the satellite map of Israel that were labeled "Nakba - The Palestinian Catastrophe." Clicking on them led to the anti-Israel website Palestine Remembered.
(Jerusalem Post)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

"Thus, Israel is depicted as a state born out of colonial conquest rather than the return of a people from exile." Uhh, how lovely and cute of you! By the token of your logic, perhaps Native Red Indians use decapitate every Caucasian, Latin, non-Native American in the United States today, as payback for the genocide Native Red Indians suffered at the hands of colonial Europeans about 300 years ago? Immediately thereafter, Native Red Indians ought to gather what is left of Americans and put them in concentration camps and surround them in walled-off tiny regions. And that wouldn't be wrong, because that would be...hold on, let me copy & paste you..."the return of a people from exile."

Nevermind that those events happened 300 years ago; after all, the so-called Jews you're referring to were supposedly "exiled" hundreds and hundreds of years ago from the land known today as Palestine, huh?

The funny part, for me, is: none of the actual Jews who were allegedly exiled from the land known today as Palestine are actually in today's Israel. You know why? Because actual Jews, real Jews who carry the blood of Jacob, Isaac, and Abraham, and who be the cousins of lots of Muslims, who would carry the blood of Ishmael (Ismaeel) and Abraham, probably none of those Jews are in Israel today. Those Jews most probably are still scattered around the Middle East area, especially in Yemen and Iran, and they would be considered "second-class" citizens or "Arab Jews" if they settle in Israel, because Zionists, who think themselves Jews, are nothing more converted Jews. So really, your whole message there just got lost in ignorance of history and the reality of life today. Return from exile, my backside.

Bruce said...

Dear Yaseen Rocca,

We are so far apart on the issue of Zionism, that I don't know where to start...but thank you for taking the time to write.

You should take some time to consider that Zionist side of the coin...at least historically. There has been a continuous Jewish presence in Palestine for several thousand years.

Your analogy to American Indians and the United States does not ring true. The area of Palestine was a neglected backwater, basically undeveloped by its Turkish, the English rulers.

In any case, the only solution is sharing the land, which Arab rejected many times since 1948. Pity.

Best,
Bruce