Daily Times

In a recent development, tech giant Google removed Palestine off its world map.

The latest stint has been followed even by Apple maps which marked the end of Israeli annexation of Palestine by completely removing the later country off the world map.

The change comes at the heels of Israel President Benjamin Netanyahu pledging to establish West Bank annexations. However, they have already triggered global criticism with many countries calling it ‘human rights violation’ but the years-long Israel-Palestine conflict has only spiraled. Not losing any time to weaken the Palestinian Authority, Netanyahu’s coalition government have moved ahead with plans.

In 2016, Google clarified that the label “Palestine” had never been present on its mapping service, which instead includes labels for the West Bank and Gaza, as well as their respective outlines on the map.

“There has never been a ‘Palestine’ label on Google Maps, however, we discovered a bug that removed the labels for ‘West Bank’ and ‘Gaza Strip.’ We’re working quickly to bring these labels back to the area,” Google said in 2016.

Earlier, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for dialogue to resolve tensions over the proposed annexation by Israel of parts of the occupied Palestinian territories.

Meanwhile, 11 European foreign ministers have written to the EU to ask for possible actions that the bloc could take to prevent the proposed annexation.

Ministers from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and Finland asked EU Minister for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell to set out the “legal consequences” of the move, following an initial request made at a meeting in May.

The letter suggested that doing so could help members “deter annexation” by laying out to Israel the consequences of such action.